Lead Pharmacist - Digital Medicines and EPMA

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and forward‑thinking Lead EPMA Pharmacist (Band 8b) to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering safe, innovative digital medicines systems across Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This is a senior clinical and digital leadership role, responsible for the strategic oversight, development, and governance of the Trust’s Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) system. The postholder will lead EPMA optimisation, upgrades, and continuous improvement, ensuring that digital prescribing directly supports high‑quality patient care, reduces medication risk, and aligns with national best practice.

Working closely with the pharmacy senior leadership team and Trust CCIOs,  IT teams, clinicians, system suppliers, and external partners, you will provide expert leadership across digital medicines, including system configuration, order set development, risk management, business continuity planning, and clinical safety assurance. You will act as a key professional advisor on EPMA-related matters, influencing Trust-wide policy, practice, and decision-making.

Alongside this strategic role, the postholder will deliver an advanced specialist clinical pharmacy service within a designated clinical specialty, maintaining strong patient-facing practice and ensuring digital systems are grounded in real clinical workflows.

Main duties of the job

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Trust’s Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) system, ensuring safe, effective, and consistent use across all sites. Lead the configuration, optimisation, and ongoing development of EPMA, including prescribing content, order sets, decision support, and data integrity.
• Project manage EPMA upgrades and system changes, ensuring appropriate testing, clinical safety assurance, and successful implementation. Act as the professional and clinical EPMA lead, advising senior pharmacy, clinical, and digital leaders on system risks, opportunities, and impacts on patient care.
• Develop and oversee EPMA governance, policies, and procedures, and lead clinical risk management activities including incident review, audit, and system downtime planning. Deliver and evaluate EPMA training programmes for prescribers, nurses, pharmacy staff, and other users.
• Work collaboratively with system suppliers, IT teams, and external partners to resolve issues, drive service improvement, and support innovation. Use EPMA data to monitor medicines safety, quality, and financial performance.
• Provide an advanced specialist clinical pharmacy service to a designated clinical area and contribute to clinical governance, audit, education, and workforce development, promoting an inclusive and safety‑focused culture aligned with Trust values.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Provide senior professional leadership for Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) across Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, ensuring it supports safe, effective, and efficient use of medicines.

Act as the Trust’s lead pharmacy professional for EPMA, providing expert advice to senior pharmacy, clinical, digital, and corporate leaders on digital medicines strategy, system capability, risks, and opportunities.

Lead and contribute to Trust and directorate-level EPMA governance structures, ensuring robust clinical oversight, accountability, and alignment with national guidance and organisational priorities.

Influence the strategic development of digital medicines and EPR programmes, ensuring pharmacy and medicines safety requirements are embedded within wider digital transformation plans.

Maintain overall responsibility for the configuration, maintenance, and ongoing development of the EPMA system, including prescribing content, order sets, administration workflows, clinical decision support, and system parameters.

Project manage all EPMA upgrades, enhancements, and system changes, ensuring appropriate testing, validation, user engagement, and go‑live support.

Oversee system testing and quality assurance, ensuring all changes are clinically safe, technically sound, and fit for real‑world clinical practice.

Manage EPMA data integrity, including regular audit of medicines files, order sets, and system rules, to ensure accuracy, usability, and patient safety.

Lead clinical risk management for EPMA, including hazard identification, mitigation planning, incident investigation, and learning from errors or near misses.

Develop and maintain EPMA downtime and business continuity arrangements, ensuring continuity of safe medicines practice during system outages or degradation.

Analyse prescribing and administration data, particularly for high‑risk medicines, to identify trends, risks, and areas for quality improvement.

Ensure EPMA practice reflects national safety alerts, professional standards, and best practice guidance, responding proactively to emerging risks.

Develop, coordinate, and evaluate a comprehensive EPMA training strategy for prescribers, nurses, pharmacy staff, and other system users.

Work closely with clinical, education, and operational teams to support adoption, standardisation, and effective use of EPMA across all sites and specialties.

Act as a senior digital change leader, supporting services through workflow redesign, behavioural change, and post‑implementation optimisation.

Lead and manage relationships with EPMA system suppliers, IT services, and external partners, ensuring effective communication, issue resolution, and service improvement.

Work collaboratively with pharmacy leaders, clinicians, finance teams, and operational managers to support medicines safety, quality, and financial stewardship.

Contribute to the development and use of EPMA reporting to inform clinical governance, audit, service planning, and performance management.

Provide an advanced specialist clinical pharmacy service to a designated clinical specialty in line with Trust policy and professional standards.

Maintain personal clinical competence through direct patient care, including medicines reconciliation, pharmaceutical care planning, therapeutic monitoring, and patient counselling.

Participate in multidisciplinary ward rounds, clinical meetings, and service development within the allocated specialty.

Provide professional leadership, supervision, and support to pharmacy staff and trainees, contributing to appraisal, development, and workforce capability.

Contribute to education and training programmes for pharmacy, medical, nursing, and allied health professionals.

Undertake and support audit, evaluation, and practice research, contributing to service improvement and professional dissemination where appropriate.

Act in accordance with Trust policies, legislation, and professional standards, maintaining confidentiality, data security, and information governance.

Uphold Trust values and actively promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in leadership practice and service delivery.

Participate in ongoing professional development and contribute to the continuous improvement of pharmacy and digital medicines services.