Medicines Advice Pharmacist

The NHS SPS Medicines Advice Service is delivered in line with the NHS SPS Specification (December 2021) as commissioned by NHS England & Improvement (NHSEI). The NHS SPS requires the post-holder to act as a Medicines Advice pharmacist for the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service Medicines Advice for England as commissioned by NHSEI as outlined in the NHS SPS service specification (November 2021) The national specification for Medicines Advice includes provision of professional support to the Regional Medicines Optimisation Committees; national provision of a medicines clinical enquiry service; and provision of resources (through a dedicated website) to support best practice and the safe use of medicines. The post holder will provide medicines advice expertise to deliver the MA clinical enquiry answering and information & resources services for England. The post holder will work in collaboration with peers and under the direction of the relevant Advanced Medicines Advice Pharmacist, on behalf of the relevant Hub Leads, to assist with the safe, efficient, cost effective and patient-centred development and delivery of the SPS Medicines Advice service, advising healthcare professionals on all aspects of medicines optimisation.

• Provide medicines advice in line with governance arrangements for the SPS MA Service for England that enable and assure delivery against the NHS SPS service specification as commissioned by NHSEI.
• Participate in the Trust medicines advice service
• Support the transformation of SPS MA Service for England.
• Maintain a theoretical and practical knowledge of medicines optimisation as it applies to medicines advice services.
• Where appropriate and under the direction of the Hub Leads or Head of SPS, act as a specialist resource nationally for the NHS SPS MA.
• Work as part of a high performing team to deliver the agreed strategy for the NHS SPS MA Service for England.
• Follow standards for the provision of the MA service in line with national guidelines/specifications to ensure an effective, timely and safe level of service that meets user’s needs.
• Utilise your expertise to train others to deliver an expert, high quality, effective and stakeholder focused service to all areas of responsibility.

Our values

help us to define and develop our culture, what we do and how we do it. It is important that you understand and reflect these values throughout your employment with the Trust. The post holder will:

• Put patients first
• Take pride in what they do
• Respect others
• Strive to be the best
• Act with integrity

Duties and Responsibilities Clinical Enquiry Answering and Resource Development Providing clinical medicines advice to a range of healthcare professionals. This involves:

• Receiving and recording complex questions frequently related to patient care, clarifying the clinical problem to be addressed.
• Defining a search strategy in order to inform the response and researching the answer. This may sometimes involve the use of the individual MA pharmacist’s professional knowledge and expertise.
• Evaluating the information retrieved and making a judgement, often where there is conflicting advice.
• Delivering the answer in an accurate, timely and helpful manner. This may be either directly to the enquirer tailored to the individual healthcare professional’s needs and route of communication, or as written information published on the SPS website for use by other health care professionals.

Pharmacy Services

• Provide a clinical ward pharmacy service to promote safe, clinically effective and cost-efficient use of medicines to patients.
• Dispense medicine at ward level when appropriate or assist in the dispensary as requested by line manager.
• Establish good working relationships at ward level and pro-actively contribute to activities that will help improve the patient experience.

Service improvement and management responsibilities Across England the NHS SPS MA Service is provided through a workforce located across different geographical sites which are designated to host the NHS SPS. The post-holder will work collaboratively with other MA Pharmacists to achieve the objectives of the MA service. The post-holder will support in delivering any changes to service delivery necessary across England in order to meet the ongoing objectives of the SPS MA national service. Finance responsibilities The post-holder will not have budgetary responsibility but will be expected to help ensure that the budgetary sum is managed appropriately in-year by supporting efficiencies wherever possible. Research and innovation The post-holder will be expected to undertake research & development, where such activities support the broader strategic objectives of the SPS MA. They will also be expected to support the development and delivery of innovative approaches to the delivery of the SPS MA Service. This will include the following:

• Support transformation of the NHS SPS MA Service such that it is provided consistently and equitably across England and is aligned to NHSEI commissioning expectations.
• Support achieving economies of scale, reduced duplication, and increased ability to meet commissioner and user needs as part of the national NHS SPS specification.
• Support implementing qualitative and quantitative measures to determine performance against the organisational strategy.

Management responsibilities The post-holder will be expected to:

• Participate in, and take responsibility for, regular training of medicines advice colleagues as appropriate.
• Directly supervise the work of colleagues, where appropriate
• Deputise for the Highly Specialist Pharmacist (Medicines Information) in their absence

Information Management skills The post holder will be expected to have a minimum of a basic level of proficiency in Microsoft Office software packages. They will also be expected to have or gain a minimum of basic level proficiency using other software packages that support efficient, national team operations (e.g., MS Teams, MS OneDrive, MS SharePoint, NHS Futures). The postholder will be expected to accurately document enquiries onto the bespoke software package, MiDatabank. The post-holder will be expected to gain proficiency in use of the digital solution to support operational management of the NHS SPS MA Clinical Enquiry service. They will also be expected to gain familiarity with the operational aspects of developing content for the SPS website Key working relationships and accountability The post-holder will:

• Be accountable for their own actions.
• Manage their own work under the direction of the SPS MA Senior Pharmacist, SPS MA Advance Pharmacist, or SPS MA Associate Hub Leads.
• Support the transformation of the NHS SPS MA Service.
• Behave and act in a manner consistent with the values of the NHS SPS.
• Where appropriate and necessary, the post-holder will be expected to participate in providing medicine advice relating to a specialist area.
• Maintain concentration for prolonged periods of time, while writing, checking or evaluating information.