Lead Pharmacist - Medicines Information, Commissioning and Formulary

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic Pharmacist to join our friendly and supportive Medicines Use, Safety, Governance and Quality team within the Pharmacy Department at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

We are a friendly, dynamic and compassionate team who collectively aspire to deliver a safe and effective service for our staff and patients, in line with our Trust objectives.

In this leadership post, you will  be responsible for the management of our Drugs and Therapeutics Committee which includes the review of new medicines and formulary adherence for both sites of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trusts and at Integrated Care System (ICS) Level.

You will be the operational lead for the Trust Medicines Information Service and will be responsible for providing a high quality clinical enquiry answering service to healthcare professionals within the Trust and to patients via our established medicines helpline and training and promoting service use within the organisation in conjunction with our local partners.

You will, with support from the Principal Pharmacist - Medicines Information, Formulary and Commissioning, lead on the high cost drug engagement programme with our clinical service lines ensuring the organisation's medicines use is in line with local, regional and national governance and commissioning frameworks including the promotion of cost effective use of medicines and contribution to the Trust medicines cost improvement programme.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will lead, manage and develop the Medicines Information Service provided to Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust to provide a high quality, customer responsive service in enquiry answering, literature evaluation and the provision of active information on all aspects of medicines and their use.

The post holder will operationally manage the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and represent BHFT at ICS area prescribing committee and related subgroups as advised by the Principal Pharmacist, Commissioning Formulary and Medicines Information. The post will support the Pharmacy Purchasing Medicines for Safety Group programme.

The post holder will be involved in the operational management of high cost drug requests and medicines related cost improvement programmes, providing specialist advice on the commissioning of medicines, evaluation and implementation of new medicines, working closely with the commissioners, finance, the clinical pharmacy team and the clinical service lines to optimise cost effective use of medicines within the Trust.

To provide clinical support to CSLs in the management of high cost drug prescribing as appropriate, contributing to cost effective medicines use and service quality improvement.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Medicines Information

To be accountable for the delivery of a high quality, efficient, specialist medicines information service to the Trust, interface, primary care healthcare professionals and members of the public, according to their needs and ensuring compliance with medicines legislation, professional standards and risk minimisation strategies.

To manage the Medicines Information Service including maintenance and up-dating of in-house files and enquiry databases, selection and ordering of appropriate journals and reference sources (paper and electronic) according to guidelines from the UKMi.

Commissioning

Support the principal pharmacist, medicines information, commissioning and formulary, in providing leadership and professional guidance to the department and clinical service lines related to NHSE and ICB commissioned high cost medicines (excluded from the National Tariff Payment System; NTPS). This includes implementation of NICE TA, CDF and other commissioned medicines, horizon scanning, and budget planning.

Support the principal pharmacist, medicines information, commissioning and formulary, with clinical management / advice to staff regarding IVIg requests, high cost drugs, homecare, individual funding requests and biosimilar/ generic switching.

Support the Head of Medicines Governance, Safety & Quality in the creating, implementation and monitoring of the medicines cost improvement plan.

To work closely with key stakeholders within the Trust and externally (commissioners) to support the delivery of cost-effective medicines management

Support with the development of appropriate clinical pathways, shared care protocols / fact sheets within the Trust and across the interface

Formulary

Develop and ensure support to the formulary processes for the introduction of new medicines into the Trust through: critical appraisal of clinical evidence, economic evaluation, risk assessment, robust prioritisation, recommended placement in treatment, audit of the processes.

To assist in providing drug reviews, pathway development and medical information support to the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee.

To maintain and review the net formulary entries following output from the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and ICS formulary committees in conjunction with the ICB.

To assist with the monitoring and management of one off and/or non-formulary requests, including onward reporting to the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and associated actions.

To represent the Medicines Use Team at Formulary related committees (internal and external).

To support procurement teams with formulary medicines reconciliation as a result of system mergers and alignment.

To support the procurement team with assessing implications of contract changes and help deal with supply issues and product discontinuations.

To support the CSL pharmacy teams with monitoring adherence to formulary, assessing non formulary medicine use, supporting with formulary applications on behalf of the drugs and Therapeutics committee and reviewing current formulary medicines use.

Review the status and cost effectiveness of medicines already on the formulary.

To work with the principal pharmacist, commissioning , formulary and medicines information to support with formulary aspects associated with implementation of new medicines, NICE Technology Appraisals, medication switches (biosimilars, generics).

• To assist in the ongoing development of the Medicines Information service in the Trust, by proposing and implementing policy and service developments. To support the Pharmacy clinical teams with fulfilling medicines management responsibilities by provision of specialist pharmaceutical input to, and active or involvement in, the development and implementation of:
• medication protocols and policies
• shared care guidelines
• formulary reviews and evaluations
• patient group directions, ensuring compliance with legislation
• multidisciplinary team working To disseminate information about new drugs, licence changes, ADRs, and other medicines information as appropriate to the rest of the pharmacy department and to contribute to the shortages management programme (support with memo production, enquiries and dissemination of information) in conjunction with the clinical and operations team. To produce and present policies at meetings and Trust committees for ratification as appropriate. To answer MI queries from health professionals and patients across Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, supporting other staff to answer their own simple MI queries by in-house training. To support maintenance and development of the in-house MI database for the efficient storage and retrieval of past enquiries and the production of workload reports. To be responsible for audit within the Medicines Information Service and include findings in reports to the Department Senior Leadership Meetings.  Performance of the service should be monitored against UKMi standards and user satisfaction, using feedback questionnaires and peer review. To maintain up-to-date procedures and guidelines for staff working in Medicines Information. To train pharmacy staff (including Rotational Pharmacists, Pre-registration Pharmacists, Pre-registration Pharmacy Technicians and any new Pharmacists or Technicians) in the provision of Medicines Information services according to UKMi standards including the use of computer databases.