SACT E Prescribing Deputy Pharmacist

Job overview

• Support the Lead Pharmacist in the delivery of the electronic prescribing service on behalf of cancer services for SBU and Hywel Dda (HD) Health Boards.
• Supervision and support for SACT E Prescribing Service Manager.
• Maintain and drive development of the electronic prescribing system for cancer services. This system provides an integrated prescribing solution for adult Oncology and Haematology patients throughout the South West Wales region.
• Deliver ongoing training programmes for nursing, pharmacy and medical teams to ensure appropriate use of the system.  Monitor and report on use of the system to ensure high standards are maintained in the prescribing process.
• Maintain a focus on patient safety, clinical governance and service improvement at all times.
• Undertake and support complex audit and research both locally and nationally in cancer services.
• Work in close partnership/collaboration with the multidisciplinary Upper Gastrointestinal oncology team, providing professional advice and expertise.
• Monitor and evaluate advised interventions to ensure clinically effective care is given and provide professional advice to patients and carers.

Main duties of the job

• Ensure the timely implementation of new protocols for prescribing within relevant deadlines, whether clinical, financial or political.
• Risk assess and prioritise many complex conflicting demands from a wide range of sources to balance clinical risk with financial and strategic requirements.  Ensure the greatest benefit and least risk from the limited resources available.
• Collate and interpret very complex, highly specialist and sometimes conflicting information from a range of available specialist resources and propose the best approach based on this evidence.
• Work with clinicians to develop very complex treatment protocols and guidelines for use across the region.  Share protocols with colleagues across Wales where suitable. Have an in depth, highly specialist knowledge and extensive experience of a range of specialities particularly; oncology, haematology, clinical trials, information governance, Good Clinical Practice, GDPR and Good Manufacturing Practice.
• Provide expert specialist professional advice on clinical, pharmacy technical and electronic prescribing issues to a wide range of colleagues with varying levels of understanding and ability. Some of the advice given may be contentious and requires sound evidence and judgement to support it.
• Work with the IT system supplier to develop, test and pilot new modules of the system.
• Support a reporting service on SACT prescribing locally and nationally.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Collaborate with NHS Health Board Lead Clinicians, Pharmacists and Nurses to enable agreement of new, and modifications to existing, SACT treatment protocols for entry onto the system.
• Liaise with Health Board Clinicians and Pharmacists to ensure SACT treatment protocols are verified and signed off as approved for use before release on the system.
• Provide highly complex and potentially contentious information to all levels of medical staff, based on a combination of expert knowledge, extensive experience and interpretation of evidence.
• Communicate effectively information that is often highly complex and sensitive to patients and carers.
• Requires extensive, highly specialist knowledge and experience in cancer treatment, ensure that knowledge is up to date in a number of very fast paced specialities.
• Maintain and develop an in-depth knowledge of pharmaceuticals, aseptic manufacturing, Quality Assurance and Control (QA&C) and clinical trial developments.
• Ensure understanding and application of current information governance regulations and guidelines to ensure the service remains within the law.
• Extensive knowledge of best practice, local and national guidelines and standards for cancer services, pharmacy practice and informatics.
• Provide ongoing structured training to clinical staff including medical, nursing and pharmacy according to users’ requirements.
• Plan and record Continuous Professional Development and take part in revalidation as recommended by General Pharmaceutical Council, national and local policies.
• Responsible for monitoring personal professional skills and knowledge.
• Interpret national guidance, research and audit and where it does not exist to formulate an expert opinion and/or contribute to the evidence.
• Maintain and update as necessary the SACT treatment protocol and drug formulary database on the system.
• Undertake and supervise entry of highly complex SACT treatment protocols and drug formulary information onto the system.
• Perform verification and testing of SACT treatment protocols on the system.
• Report on patients who have died within 30 days of treatment, as per national best practice standards, investigate cases and identify provide clinical data as required.  Attend Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) meetings and contribute to root cause analysis of cases to identify patterns or actions required, implement actions as appropriate.
• Identify action points from the SBU M&M or incidents and extrapolate to HD practice if needed, implement changes as appropriate.
• Share learning points and actions from investigations and critical incidents with colleagues nationally to enable wider learning and improvement in practice.
• Investigate critical incidents as required, retrieve required clinical information, liaise with other parties, identify root causes and produce an action plan and implement changes as required across both health boards.
• Support changes in working practices within cancer services and encourage new ways of working with an aim to improve safety and quality within the service.
• Provide recommendations for the future development and use of the system.
• Support Morbidity and Mortality meetings, provide expert opinions on cases, recommend and implement changes to practice.
• Contribute to investigations of clinical incidents and provide professional advice and recommend changes to practice.
• Support regional and All-Wales audit of the system.
• Support the production of regional policies and clinical protocols; writing, co-ordinating, providing opinions, checking and approving as appropriate.
• Ensure that service developments and changes to practice are done in conjunction between the health boards, be a key point of contact for the region to share practices and co-ordinate service development.
• Support the managed introduction of new medicines to Cancer Services by supporting clinicians in making submissions to the Medicines Management Board or equivalent and to support the Cancer/Clinical Effectiveness Pharmacists with implementation.
• Work across traditional boundaries (professional and geographical) to enhance practice in Cancer Services.
• Understand the long-term plans for Cancer Services and informatics locally and nationally and plan SACT E Prescribing service accordingly to facilitate such plans.
• Help write and update Upper GI cancer review protocols.
• Provide highly specialist advice on evidence-based practice and prescribing protocols to specialist consultant medical staff, pharmacy staff and tumour site specific cancers lead clinicians.
• Provide highly specialist advice on SACT regimens to develop and improve the prescribing protocols.
• Carry out literature searches on extremely specialist and complex cases that fall outside standard, evidence-based practice where the information available may be limited or of questionable quality.  Assess and interpret the information found to provide expert advice including an understanding of the risks and benefits to options available.
• Provide support to the other members of the Upper GI Oncology team in providing specialist advice on treatments, side effects and interactions.
• Take part in SACT review clinics and consultant clinics, by reviewing current treatment, side effects of the treatment and suitability for continuation of treatment
• The provision of relevant information (both verbal and written), advice and support to patients, their families/carers and staff, liaising and referring on as necessary to appropriate health care professionals in hospital or in the community.
• Discuss aspects of treatment for Upper GI cancer in depth with sensitivity, knowledge and expertise.
• Have knowledge of SACT, radiotherapy and clinical trials in connection with Upper GI tumours.
• Work in close partnership/collaboration with the multidisciplinary medical and nursing teams in outpatient clinics, liaising as needed with the other departments relevant to Upper GI cancer.
• Assist with the care of Upper GI cancer patients treated via homecare, by liaising with the Upper GI Oncology team, Homecare team, and patients.
• Prescribing of subsequent cycles of SACT and supportive care as required within the Upper GI multidisciplinary team.
• Regularly undertake research and development activities which will facilitate improvements in cancer services through more efficient prescribing systems for SACT.  This will be a regular feature of the role through utilisation of research methodology, both quantitative and qualitative techniques.  Within the audit cycle, this will be undertaken at regular monthly intervals.