Job summary
Are you an ambitious, experienced pharmacist, interested in working with an outstanding Trust to lead, develop and deliver treatment in mental health to our inpatients?
We are seeking to recruit a principal pharmacist to join our team leading the acute adult service . The post is offered as a full time, permanent contract. Mental health/learning disabilities experience is desirable but not essential.
Our team is based in Radlett, and provides services across Hertfordshire to service users within acute adult services, and more widely into Norfolk, Essex and Buckinghamshire for Learning Disability Services.
The post holder will have current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council, Clinical Pharmacy and/or Psychiatric Therapeutics postgraduate qualifications (up to diploma level) or equivalent experience, and significant post registration experience.
You must hold a full valid driving license and have access to a car to use regularly for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equaltiy Act 2010).
We welcome diversity in our workforce and encourage applicants from people of all ages and backgrounds, such as those with lived experience of mental health difficulties.
Please contact Nicola Headland on 07827 880328, or the current postholder, Prina Morjaria on 07855 981631, for an informal chat or to arrange a visit. We look forward to hearing from you!
Main duties of the job
The successful applicant will:
- work in collaboration with clinical teams as part of a multi-disciplinary approach to address the care needs of our service users.
- ensure safe and effective medicines management processes within the service. This will include compliance with regulatory medicines management standards and implementation of medicines safety alerts.
- support the Chief Pharmacist in developing and implementing the Trust Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation strategy for acute adults.
- work across the local health economy to ensure smooth transitions of care.
- be encouraged to undertake relevant research in collaboration with the University of Hertfordshire.
In return, we can offer you:
- leadership and management training opportunities
- 5% on top of basic salary high cost allowance supplement (subject to a minimum and a maximum payment pro rata)
- 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service) plus bank holidays (pro rata where applicable)
- One of the UK's best pension schemes
- Free Pilates lessons
- Comprehensive health and wellbeing services
- Special leave for family and personal reasons
- NHS Car Lease Scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
Our staff survey results tell a story of highly engaged, motivated, passionate people working at HPFT. The survey has shown that staff overwhelmingly believe that their role makes a difference to service users, to the extent that HPFT had the best score nationally for this question.
About us
We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from theCare Quality Commission
Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:
Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- To provide highly specialist pharmaceutical advice concerning the care and treatment of service users in Mental Health (including Forensics) and Learning Disabilities Services and to promote safe, effective and evidence based cost effective use of medicines within the Trust.
- To actively lead the provision and development of pharmaceutical services to a specific division.
- To provide highly specific advice to clinical team members on the management of complex medicines related issues, such as complex drug interactions, medicines use in pregnancy, unlicensed/off-label use of medicines etc.
- To provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where developed persuasive, motivational, negotiating, training, empathetic or re-assurance skills are required. This may be because agreement or co-operation is required or because there are barriers to understanding. This may also involve presenting complex, sensitive or contentious information to a large group of staff, service users or carers.
- To work as part of a multidisciplinary team to provide clinical pharmaceutical support to designated areas in order to maximise benefits and minimise risk to service users. This will include medicines reconciliation, prescription review, medication reviews, identification and management of drug interactions and adverse effects, advice on clinical monitoring, medicines information, advising on supply problems, compliance with legislation, compliance with Trust policies and guidelines and participation in multidisciplinary team meetings where appropriate.
- To be responsible for effective operation, monitoring and feedback of the Trust Medicines Policy, Strategy for Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation, Trust Medicines Formulary, New Drugs Policy, NICE Guidance and other policies and guidelines approved locally by the Trust Drugs & Therapeutics Committee, and also those agreed across the wider health economy medicines and prescribing committee.
- To develop, plan and complete and evaluate audits to ensure safe and secure storage and handling of medicines in trust units within the locality according to Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Professional Guidance on the Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines (Royal Pharmaceutical Society) and the Medicines Act.
- To be responsible for the teaching/delivery of education and training in Medicines Optimisation for all healthcare professionals working in HPFT.
- To prepare critical appraisal reports when required for managed entry of new medicines or new or existing treatments for consideration by the Drugs & Therapeutics Committee or health economy wide medicines committees. This may involve presenting a range of options and using evidence based medicine as well as judgement regarding highly complex facts or situations.
- To carry out medication reviews and provide a clinical pharmacy service and pharmaceutical advice and support to designated mental health or learning disabilities units or teams within the remit of HPFT. These reviews will support clinicians preparing care plans for individual service users.
- To provide pharmaceutical support with local medicines policy writing, development and review, dealing with supply problems and offering solutions etc.
- To develop standard operating procedures and policies to further the safe and effective management of medicines for the benefit of service users accessing mental health services.
- To monitor drug expenditure reports and provide advice to prescribers and managers on more cost effective use of medicines. To provide advice to the Finance Department on budget setting and horizon scanning of new drugs in development.
- To support and participate in medication incident investigation.
- To review medication incident reports and contribute to systems learning from analysis of these events. The post holder will be responsible for presenting a quarterly safety report to designated groups.
- To attend relevant team meetings / committees relevant to the area assigned to you.
- To review the risk management policies relating to medicines as required by the service.
- To provide education on medicines to individual service users and carers or groups as required. This may require the management of certain situations very sensitively and to ensure the service users rights to privacy, independence, confidentiality and dignity are maintained at all times. Service users and where appropriate their carers should be empowered to make informed choices about their care and participate in the planning of that care.
- To communicate with, and form working relationships with pharmacists and technicians employed by other NHS Trusts, where they are working within HPFT Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Units under a Service Level Agreement.
- To provide medicines information advice when appropriate and to refer when necessary to the Medicines Information Pharmacist employed under the Service Level Agreement with the Acute Trust.
- To plan, execute, evaluate and report audits of medicines use, the medicines optimisation process, the operation of policies and procedures relating to medicines and risk management processes in the Trust, including national audits e.g. POMH-UK by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
- To develop and implement policies, protocols and guidelines including Patient Group Directions and to set up education and training programmes to support these.
- To participate in the appraisals and supervision of staff as required.
- To provide dispensary cover as required.
- To take part in weekend, bank holiday and on-call rotas, as required.
- To participate with the annual stock take.
- To appreciate and support developments in a changing NHS, for example 7 day working
- To carry out other duties with the agreement of the post holder and the Chief Pharmacist.
For a more detailed description, please see attached job description and person specification.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- To provide highly specialist pharmaceutical advice concerning the care and treatment of service users in Mental Health (including Forensics) and Learning Disabilities Services and to promote safe, effective and evidence based cost effective use of medicines within the Trust.
- To actively lead the provision and development of pharmaceutical services to a specific division.
- To provide highly specific advice to clinical team members on the management of complex medicines related issues, such as complex drug interactions, medicines use in pregnancy, unlicensed/off-label use of medicines etc.
- To provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where developed persuasive, motivational, negotiating, training, empathetic or re-assurance skills are required. This may be because agreement or co-operation is required or because there are barriers to understanding. This may also involve presenting complex, sensitive or contentious information to a large group of staff, service users or carers.
- To work as part of a multidisciplinary team to provide clinical pharmaceutical support to designated areas in order to maximise benefits and minimise risk to service users. This will include medicines reconciliation, prescription review, medication reviews, identification and management of drug interactions and adverse effects, advice on clinical monitoring, medicines information, advising on supply problems, compliance with legislation, compliance with Trust policies and guidelines and participation in multidisciplinary team meetings where appropriate.
- To be responsible for effective operation, monitoring and feedback of the Trust Medicines Policy, Strategy for Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation, Trust Medicines Formulary, New Drugs Policy, NICE Guidance and other policies and guidelines approved locally by the Trust Drugs & Therapeutics Committee, and also those agreed across the wider health economy medicines and prescribing committee.
- To develop, plan and complete and evaluate audits to ensure safe and secure storage and handling of medicines in trust units within the locality according to Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Professional Guidance on the Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines (Royal Pharmaceutical Society) and the Medicines Act.
- To be responsible for the teaching/delivery of education and training in Medicines Optimisation for all healthcare professionals working in HPFT.
- To prepare critical appraisal reports when required for managed entry of new medicines or new or existing treatments for consideration by the Drugs & Therapeutics Committee or health economy wide medicines committees. This may involve presenting a range of options and using evidence based medicine as well as judgement regarding highly complex facts or situations.
- To carry out medication reviews and provide a clinical pharmacy service and pharmaceutical advice and support to designated mental health or learning disabilities units or teams within the remit of HPFT. These reviews will support clinicians preparing care plans for individual service users.
- To provide pharmaceutical support with local medicines policy writing, development and review, dealing with supply problems and offering solutions etc.
- To develop standard operating procedures and policies to further the safe and effective management of medicines for the benefit of service users accessing mental health services.
- To monitor drug expenditure reports and provide advice to prescribers and managers on more cost effective use of medicines. To provide advice to the Finance Department on budget setting and horizon scanning of new drugs in development.
- To support and participate in medication incident investigation.
- To review medication incident reports and contribute to systems learning from analysis of these events. The post holder will be responsible for presenting a quarterly safety report to designated groups.
- To attend relevant team meetings / committees relevant to the area assigned to you.
- To review the risk management policies relating to medicines as required by the service.
- To provide education on medicines to individual service users and carers or groups as required. This may require the management of certain situations very sensitively and to ensure the service users rights to privacy, independence, confidentiality and dignity are maintained at all times. Service users and where appropriate their carers should be empowered to make informed choices about their care and participate in the planning of that care.
- To communicate with, and form working relationships with pharmacists and technicians employed by other NHS Trusts, where they are working within HPFT Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Units under a Service Level Agreement.
- To provide medicines information advice when appropriate and to refer when necessary to the Medicines Information Pharmacist employed under the Service Level Agreement with the Acute Trust.
- To plan, execute, evaluate and report audits of medicines use, the medicines optimisation process, the operation of policies and procedures relating to medicines and risk management processes in the Trust, including national audits e.g. POMH-UK by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
- To develop and implement policies, protocols and guidelines including Patient Group Directions and to set up education and training programmes to support these.
- To participate in the appraisals and supervision of staff as required.
- To provide dispensary cover as required.
- To take part in weekend, bank holiday and on-call rotas, as required.
- To participate with the annual stock take.
- To appreciate and support developments in a changing NHS, for example 7 day working
- To carry out other duties with the agreement of the post holder and the Chief Pharmacist.
For a more detailed description, please see attached job description and person specification.
Person Specification
QUALIFICATIONS/EDUCATION/TRAINING
Essential
- BPharm / MPharm / BSc Pharmacy
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
- Postgraduate clinical pharmacy certificate/ diploma or equivalent experience.
- Demonstrates own CPD record/ or documented CPD
Desirable
- Registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)
- Postgraduate Certificate/diploma in Psychiatric Therapeutics or equivalent experience
- Postgraduate diploma in Advanced Clinical Practice
- Leadership or Management Qualification
- Non-medical prescriber (or working towards)
- Member of the RPS Education and Standards Committee
EXPERIENCE
Essential
- Experience of working in a secondary care setting, (demonstrable post qualification hospital pharmacy practice)
- Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team
- Evidence of involvement in clinical pharmacy provision and in operational management
- Writing and reviewing of policies, guidelines, and procedures
- Documented evidence of completed audit work and research practice
- Good, broad clinical knowledge and ability to apply to a ward, community and dispensary setting
- Experience in managing workload
Desirable
- Experience of working as a member of a multidisciplinary team in mental health and learning disabilities
- Evidence of education, training, performance management and development of staff
- Good management skills - including recruitment, supervision, and appraisals
- Experience showing leadership skills or equivalent
- Managing quality and cost effectiveness initiatives
- Experience in incident analysis and investigation
- Awareness of current issues facing the NHS
- Experience of project management
- Experience of carrying out clinical supervision
- Experience of chairing committees
SKILLS / COMMUNICATION
Essential
- Advanced IT skills and comprehensive use of Microsoft office including power point and excel
- An ability to organise and prioritise own workload and that of others
- An ability to lead, inspire and motivate a team
- Engaging, compassionate and caring communication skills when dealing with patients/family/carers on complex/sensitive issues
- Experience of delivering training to staff
- Highly developed physical skills in dispensing, preparing, and checking of medicines involving a high level of accuracy.
- English language competency sufficient to communicate effectively with all staff and deliver education sessions in an appropriate form
- Advanced computer, keyboard and mouse skills
- Good interpersonal skills
- Confident, able to influence and assertive when dealing with other professionals.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
- Team player with leadership skills
- Able to prioritise and meet deadlines
- Demonstrates empathy towards client groups
- Shows initiative and has well-developed problemsolving skills
- Demonstrates attention to detail, accuracy, and numeracy skills
Desirable
- Ability to analyse highly complex information, both clinical, financial, and managerial
KNOWLEDGE
Essential
- Advanced theoretical and technical, clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge relating to the promotion of high quality, effective and cost-efficient use of medicines, including a wide range of work procedures and practices
- An awareness of NHS Plan, and clinical governance priorities
- Good knowledge of all medicines legislation relating to the supply and storage of medicines
ABILITY
Essential
- Able to deal with conflicting demands on workload and frequent interruptions
- Ability to work under pressure
- Able to influence other professionals
- Able to communicate with service users
- Able to impart complex information in a manner understandable to junior staff and students.
ANALYTICAL SKILLS
Essential
- Able to make judgements involving complex facts or situations which require analysis, interpretation, and comparison of a range of options
- Able to critically appraise clinical trial data and research papers.
Person Specification
QUALIFICATIONS/EDUCATION/TRAINING
Essential
- BPharm / MPharm / BSc Pharmacy
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
- Postgraduate clinical pharmacy certificate/ diploma or equivalent experience.
- Demonstrates own CPD record/ or documented CPD
Desirable
- Registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)
- Postgraduate Certificate/diploma in Psychiatric Therapeutics or equivalent experience
- Postgraduate diploma in Advanced Clinical Practice
- Leadership or Management Qualification
- Non-medical prescriber (or working towards)
- Member of the RPS Education and Standards Committee
EXPERIENCE
Essential
- Experience of working in a secondary care setting, (demonstrable post qualification hospital pharmacy practice)
- Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team
- Evidence of involvement in clinical pharmacy provision and in operational management
- Writing and reviewing of policies, guidelines, and procedures
- Documented evidence of completed audit work and research practice
- Good, broad clinical knowledge and ability to apply to a ward, community and dispensary setting
- Experience in managing workload
Desirable
- Experience of working as a member of a multidisciplinary team in mental health and learning disabilities
- Evidence of education, training, performance management and development of staff
- Good management skills - including recruitment, supervision, and appraisals
- Experience showing leadership skills or equivalent
- Managing quality and cost effectiveness initiatives
- Experience in incident analysis and investigation
- Awareness of current issues facing the NHS
- Experience of project management
- Experience of carrying out clinical supervision
- Experience of chairing committees
SKILLS / COMMUNICATION
Essential
- Advanced IT skills and comprehensive use of Microsoft office including power point and excel
- An ability to organise and prioritise own workload and that of others
- An ability to lead, inspire and motivate a team
- Engaging, compassionate and caring communication skills when dealing with patients/family/carers on complex/sensitive issues
- Experience of delivering training to staff
- Highly developed physical skills in dispensing, preparing, and checking of medicines involving a high level of accuracy.
- English language competency sufficient to communicate effectively with all staff and deliver education sessions in an appropriate form
- Advanced computer, keyboard and mouse skills
- Good interpersonal skills
- Confident, able to influence and assertive when dealing with other professionals.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
- Team player with leadership skills
- Able to prioritise and meet deadlines
- Demonstrates empathy towards client groups
- Shows initiative and has well-developed problemsolving skills
- Demonstrates attention to detail, accuracy, and numeracy skills
Desirable
- Ability to analyse highly complex information, both clinical, financial, and managerial
KNOWLEDGE
Essential
- Advanced theoretical and technical, clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge relating to the promotion of high quality, effective and cost-efficient use of medicines, including a wide range of work procedures and practices
- An awareness of NHS Plan, and clinical governance priorities
- Good knowledge of all medicines legislation relating to the supply and storage of medicines
ABILITY
Essential
- Able to deal with conflicting demands on workload and frequent interruptions
- Ability to work under pressure
- Able to influence other professionals
- Able to communicate with service users
- Able to impart complex information in a manner understandable to junior staff and students.
ANALYTICAL SKILLS
Essential
- Able to make judgements involving complex facts or situations which require analysis, interpretation, and comparison of a range of options
- Able to critically appraise clinical trial data and research papers.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Kingfisher Court, Kingsley Green, Radlett, Hertfordshire. WD7 9FB
Kingsley Green
Radlett
WD7 9FB
Employer's website
https://www.hpft.nhs.uk/careers/ (Opens in a new tab)
