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Job overview
We are seeking an experienced and motivated pharmacy leader to join our team as Lead Pharmacist for Patient Services at UCLH. This is a high-impact role at the heart of a complex, multi-site organisation, where you will shape and influence the delivery of safe, effective and responsive pharmacy services that directly support patient care and flow.
You will bring strong operational leadership, a passion for developing people, and the ability to work collaboratively across professional and organisational boundaries. This role offers the opportunity to lead a diverse workforce, drive service improvement, and play a key role in modernising pharmacy patient services in line with Trust priorities.
At UCLH, you’ll be part of an academically driven, forward-thinking organisation known for excellence in patient care, education and research. If you are looking for a role where you can make a tangible difference, lead innovation, and develop your leadership at scale, we would love to hear from you.
Main duties of the job
Provide visible leadership across pharmacy patient services, ensuring safe, efficient and patient-centred delivery in a complex, multi-site environment. Lead and develop a diverse pharmacy workforce, promoting a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and high performance. Oversee operational delivery, including workforce planning, service resilience and system-wide coordination, ensuring services meet demand and support patient flow.
Work collaboratively with senior clinical, operational and external partners to deliver integrated and effective services, including outsourced provision. Drive quality and governance by monitoring performance, responding to risk and implementing improvements that enhance patient safety and experience. Contribute to strategic planning, service transformation and innovation, using data and insight to shape and sustain high-quality services.
The post holder will be based across UCLH hospital sites
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.
Come and be a part of the best NHS trust in England to work for, according to our staff*
* UCLH top trust to work at in England - In the most recent NHS staff survey UCLH had the highest percentage of staff who said they would recommend us as a place to work, out of all general acute or acute/community NHS trusts in England – for the third year in a row.
UCLH recognises the benefits of flexible working for staff – To find out more, visit: Flexible working.
To discover more about what makes UCLH a great place to work, visit: Why Choose UCLH?
Person specification
Experience
Essential
- Extensive post-registration hospital pharmacy experience, including operational pharmacy service delivery.
- Experience of workforce planning, rota management and deployment, including bank and agency staff.
- Experience in line management or supervision of clinical staff, with evidence of supporting development and performance.
- Experience of working across multiple sites or services.
- Experience of investigating incidents and supporting governance processes.
Desirable
- Experience of investigating incidents and supporting governance processes.
- Experience with pharmacy digital systems, including ERostering, EPR and KPI reporting platforms.
Communication
Essential
- Demonstrates expert knowledge and skills
- Ability to manage difficult and ambiguous problems where little information is available
- Ability to formulate suitable solutions in areas of uncertainty
- Ability to influence senior pharmacy, nursing, medical, and other multidisciplinary staff
- Enhances the quality of patient care
- Demonstrates awareness of and commitment to the principles of clinical governance
- Demonstrates ability to work and lead a multi-disciplinary team
Desirable
- Ability to influence practice at a Divisional or Trust level
- Demonstrates a whole-system patient-focused approach
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Able to lead, manage and develop a multidisciplinary team
- Identifies novel ways of working to enhance services
- Ability to analyse and critically appraise operational data
- Ability to utilise email, word processing, presentation and spreadsheet software packages in order to enhance work efficiency and to generate solutions to complex problems. Evaluates service provision
- Ability to evaluate quality of pharmacy services
- Ability to develop and implement risk management procedures
Desirable
- Identifies a vision for the delivery of pharmaceutical services
- Ability to utilise database and other software packages in order to enhance work efficiency and to generate solutions to complex problems Actively seeks to improve the services provided
- Identifies staff development needs to enhance the pharmacy service
- Ability to develop and implement risk management procedures at a directorate level
Specific Requirements
Essential
- Able and willing to participate in Patient Services late duty, weekend, bank holiday and on-call rota as required.
- Flexible approach to working patterns in response to service demand.
- Commitment to NHS values, patient safety and quality improvement.
- Understanding of confidentiality, GDPR and professional codes of conduct.
- Ability to travel to and work across multiple pharmacy sites.
Knowledge and Qualifications
Essential
- Master’s degree in Pharmacy or equivalent qualification.
- Registered Pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
- Evidence of continuing professional development and maintenance of professional registration.
- Broad theoretical and practical knowledge of pharmacy practice, including operational services, medicines governance, clinical risk management and NHS policy context.
- Demonstrable significant post qualification work in an operational management capacity
Desirable
- Postgraduate qualification relevant to pharmacy practice, leadership, management or quality improvement.
- Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or other relevant professional bodies.
- Formal training in workforce management, service improvement or change management.
Personal and People Development
Essential
- Previous experience in delivering education and training at a postgraduate level
- Ensures own training needs, and those of others are identified & met
- Participation in multidisciplinary health services research
- Integrates research evidence into practice
Desirable
- Previous experience in co-ordinating education and training programmes at a post graduate level
- Actively seeks novel opportunities to meet training needs, and evaluates the training provided
- Planning and co-ordination of multi-disciplinary health care research
- Undertakes own research
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Lead Pharmacist – Pharmacy Patient Services with University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London, London, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Pharmacist role. The advertised salary is £75,328 - £86,114 per annum inclusive of HCAS. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 02 Aug 2026.
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