Principal Pharmacist - Surgery

Job overview

This is a secondment post to cover maternity leave for the post of Principal Pharmacist for Surgery.

The Principal Pharmacist (Surgery) is a senior clinical and strategic leader responsible for delivering high-quality, patient-centred pharmacy services across the surgical division. The postholder provides both operational and strategic leadership to a team of pharmacy staff, ensuring safe, effective, and efficient medicines management and optimisation within the directorate.

Working closely with multidisciplinary teams, the Principal Pharmacist integrates fully within the surgical division, aligning pharmacy services with directorate priorities, clinical pathways, and organisational objectives. They play a key role in shaping and implementing pharmacy strategy, ensuring that service development is responsive to evolving clinical needs and national guidance.

As part of the Pharmacy Management Team, the postholder contributes to the wider leadership and governance of pharmacy services and deputises for the Associate Chief Pharmacist, Clinical Services when required. This includes providing expert, timely, and evidence-based advice on all aspects of medicines use to support the Trust in achieving its clinical, operational, and strategic goals.

Main duties of the job

• To operationally and strategically lead a team of pharmacy staff providing services the Surgical Divisions and directorates and be responsible for the delivery of all Pharmacy Services to these areas.
• To personally integrate into the division so that directorate plans and issues are incorporated into overall pharmacy service provision, development and strategy.
• To be part of the Pharmacy Management arrangements and deputise for the Associate Chief Pharmacist, Clinical Services to help ensure that the Trust receives accurate, timely and contemporary information and advice on all aspects of pharmacy and medicines to meet it’s objectives.
• To be a specialist pharmacist in a specific area of surgery and to provide personal, highly specialised clinical pharmacy services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities

• To provide highly specialised advice and guidance on the safe, effective and economical use of medicines to specific directorate[s] patients and healthcare staff and the organisation whilst undertaking clinical pharmacy duties.
• To optimise medicines through prescribing role operating within areas of competence (where appropriately qualified and authorised via the Trust NMP register).
• To ensure that you maintain competence in all relevant areas of practice and to ensure that you continually develop to fulfil registration with the GPhC.

Policy and service development Within Pharmacy:

• To be responsible for the provision of directorate[s] clinical pharmacy advice/care to patients and healthcare staff; this includes out-of-hours arrangements, on-call & weekend services.
• To be responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring pharmacy and medicines policy, practice and standards.
• To be responsible for developing and prioritising all clinical pharmacy services to directorate[s]; to develop service specifications if necessary.
• To be responsible for relevant pharmacy development plans, including an annual Service Plan and contributing to the overall annual Pharmacy Plan.
• To be responsible for the implementation of relevant national legislation and policy/guidance into pharmacy clinical practice

For the Division:

• To be responsible for developing the long-term Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Strategy for the division and to provide them with contemporary advice to formulate practical policy and guidance. This will include service delivery options eg. non-medical prescribing, patient group directions, pre-operative assessment, use of physician’s associates etc
• To prepare guidance [including treatment guidelines, medicines policy, patient group directions etc], for the use of medicines within the Division in partnership with medical, nursing and management staff and to ensure safe implementation within the Directorate[s].
• To ensure appropriate consultation and governance of guidance involving medicines by being a part of guideline ratification process and/ or being a member of the Directorate[s] ratification group[s].
• To ensure that projects, changes and developments that involve medicines or pharmacy services within the directorate[s] are planned & managed to ensure that success can be adequately measured.
• To ensure pharmacy contribution to medicines projects/initiatives on behalf of the Division
• To be responsible for recording, monitoring and reporting clinical pharmacy activity to the Division.
• To manage the introduction of new medicines on behalf of the Directorate[s] and to ensure the Trust’s Formulary procedures are followed, and to ensure a link between decision making and pharmacy practice.
• To manage the implementation of national medicines optimisation initiatives within the Division, Pharmacy and Trust. This will include contributing to task & finish groups & other forums eg. Thrombosis Committee.
• To work with external organisations to promote the optimisation of medicines across the county/region.

Governance and Risk Management

• To provide information for the Trust’s system of assurance to evidence compliance with CQC and other medicines-related standards for the Directorate[s]
• To manage all pharmacy & medicines-related governance issues for the Division including incident reports and complaints. To undertake root cause analysis where required and ensure action planning to improve/avoid future issues.
• To identify medicine-related risk within the Division and Pharmacy and to ensure management via Directorate and Pharmacy risk registers.
• To attend or facilitate pharmacy representation on the Division and Directorate[s] governance forum to advise senior clinicians/managers.

Responsibility for training and development

• To be responsible for the organisation and supervision of trainee and post-registration training and development arrangements within the Directorate pharmacy team
• To plan and deliver medicines optimisation training and competence assessment for healthcare staff including doctors and nursing staff across the division.
• To ensure your staff maintain competence in all relevant areas of practice and to ensure that they fulfil registration with the GPhC.

Responsibility for leading and managing

• To lead, manage and develop a team of Pharmacists, Technicians & others. In particular, to integrate pharmacy staff into the Directorate teams.
• To be responsible for the Pharmacy service workforce and training plan for Directorates[s].
• To ensure staff comply with pharmacy and Trust policies, procedures and governance arrangements and consider professional and best practice guidance.
• To recruit, appoint and induct pharmacy staff into the team, to formally appraise them and identify training and development needs.
• To ensure staff engagement and supervision within the Pharmacy Service.
• To be responsible for the organisation and supervision of trainee and post-registration training and development arrangements within the Directorate pharmacy team.
• To optimise the time for clinical work by ensuring appropriate skill mix, technical/clinical mix, qualified/unqualified mix, and optimising the use of technology etc.

Financial management and reporting

• To be accountable for the clinical pharmacy budget within the Division.
• To be responsible for the co-ordinated advice to the Directorate[s] to effectively manage expenditure on medicines, including tariff medicines, excluded medicines, prior approvals, individual funding requests etc
• To manage the Division’s annual submission for the funding of tariff excluded medicines by horizon scanning and engaging specialists and Directorate managers; to ensure this is co-ordinated within the Trust and to discuss with commissioners as required.
• To produce appropriate reports documenting the provision of Pharmacy Services, achievements, governance and medicines expenditure for the Directorate[s] to support their needs.
• To identify and manage medicine/pharmacy quality improvement schemes, including Cost Improvement Programme [CIP] schemes within the Division; to ensure this is co-ordinated within the Pharmacy &Trust.
• To be an authorised signatory for Pharmacy

Research and Development

• To undertake and facilitate audit and practice research within Pharmacy.
• To develop an audit plan for medicines/Pharmacy services within the Directorate[s].
• To manage the audit plan, document activities, and ensure that audit is reported and appropriate action is taken on the results.
• To contribute to the Directorate[s] R&D activities involving the pharmacy Clinical Trials staff, as required.
• To promote the publication of pharmacy practice research

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.