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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust: Bracton Campus—Pharmacy Department

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of mental health and community health services. These include acute adult and elderly mental health units and community teams based at a number of locations in Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich boroughs, and an intermediate care unit based at Queen Mary’s Hospital (QMH), Sidcup.

The Trust has dispensaries located at QMH and the Bracton campus, Dartford. The QMH pharmacy store holds a wholesale dealers licence. Within Oxleas, clinical pharmacists are an integral part of the multidisciplinary team, with regular ward attendance and provision of a medicines information service which includes a patient telephone advice line.

Pharmacy also provide support to patients within the community, including to Community Mental Health teams, a specialist perinatal clinic and a home assessment Medicines Optimisation service to patients within Bromley.

Key tasks and responsibilities

• To provide clinical pharmacy services to mental health, intermediate care and elderly care inpatient units, to ensure patients receive appropriate medication on admission, have their medication and adherence reviewed during their stay, and have a clear medicines management plan on discharge.
• To provide information about the use of medicines to consultants, other prescribers, other health care professionals, patients, relatives and carers.
• To support professional leads in identifying and addressing issues around the use of medicines that are relevant to meeting CQC standards, for example advising on the safe and secure storage of medicines, and contributing to the audit and review of controlled drug processes.  
• To work with the pharmacy patient safety lead to implement medicines safety initiatives within designated wards.
• To record information as required on clinical pharmacy activity.
• To take professional responsibility when clinically screening prescriptions to ensure the accuracy, legality, safety and efficacy of prescribed medication, including liaising with doctors and nurses to resolve any queries arising from the screening process.
• To participate in the dispensary rota as needed, working independently to liaise with doctors and nurses to resolve any queries arising from the screening process and to undertake the final accuracy check on prescriptions dispensed by other pharmacy staff.
• To participate in the medicines information rota, providing clinically sound, evaluated information on a wide variety of complex enquiries to service users and all grades of health care professionals.
• To participate in other internal rotas as required.
• To undertake any other relevant duties, as may be required by the Chief Pharmacist.
• Nothing omitted or written here shall absolve the pharmacist from at all times ensuring that correct professional techniques, ethics, attitudes and procedures are maintained by the staff for whom he/she is responsible.
• To participate in pharmacy peer review meetings, demonstrate on-going continuing professional development, and be responsible for own self-development and learning within the field of pharmacy, and other specialities as appropriate.
• To ensure personal mandatory training as required by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is kept up to date.

Leadership

• The post-holder will be expected to develop services to meet local needs under the guidance of the relevant lead pharmacist.

Clinical

• To provide a specialist clinical pharmacy service as described in the key tasks and responsibilities.
• To provide clinical advice to pharmacy support staff.
• To prepare and deliver training related to the use of medicines to pharmacy and healthcare staff as required.
• To prepare and deliver patient education sessions as required.
• To contribute to the maintenance of the lithium database as required. 

Research

• To contribute to quality improvement projects and clinical audits.

Communication 

• To provide information about the use of medicines and medicines policy to consultants, other prescribers, other health care professionals, patients, relatives and carers. In some cases medication use may be unlicensed, evidence base may be lacking, or medical opinion may differ. To ensure information is provided in a timely manner, appropriate to the situation.
• To contribute to the writing of policies and procedures as required.
• To contribute to specialist clinical reviews in order to develop/update the Trusts prescribing guidelines.
• To fulfil legal requirements by contributing to the authoring of Patient Group Directions (PGDs).
• To ensure issues related to the use of medicines are raised at ward and directorate level as appropriate.

On-call/Unsocial hours

• To participate in the on-call rota when required.