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Job summary

Main area
Pharmacy
Grade
Band 8c
Contract
Secondment: 12 months
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Out of hours requirement - weekend, late night and bank holiday)
Job ref
275-2507LPMO
Employer
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Town
Gillingham
Salary
£74,290 - £85,601 per annum/pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
17/07/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Medway NHS Foundation Trust logo

Lead Pharmacist - Medicines Optimisation

Band 8c

Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People?

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision of Better, Best, Brilliant is achieved

Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust, we are able to give our employees flexibility on where, when and the hours they work.

Our culture and values are what drives Medway NHS Foundation Trust and is the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation. It is important that you understand and to refer to our values when you are completing your application and always reflect our values throughout your employment with the Trust.

Job overview

Lead Pharmacist - Medicines Optimisation

Division: Cancer & Core Clinical Services

Care Group: Pharmacy

Band: 8c

Salary: £74,290 - £85,601 per annum/pro rata

We are recruiting for a Lead Pharmacist - Medicines Optimisation who shares our ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People and has the drive to take us forward, by ensuring that the Trust continues to be the first choice for patients and our staff.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is expected to be an expert and leader in the interpretation and explanation of medicines use and expenditure data in order to optimise the use of medicines across the organisation. They will also contribute to the medicines optimisation agenda across the ICP and ICB. They will work to implement the principles of medicine optimisation to improve the clinical effectiveness of treatment and improve patient outcomes. They will also ensure financial stability in the use of medicines in the organisation.  

This position will develop and manage a rolling cross-cutting programme of medicines efficiencies in specific drug lines by working with key stakeholders across the organisation to identify, track and report medicine efficiencies. 

Our values are Bold, Every Person Counts, Sharing and Open and Together. It is important that you understand and to refer to our values when completing your application and always reflect our values throughout your employment with the Trust.

We are committed to endorsing diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion; our policies / procedures ensure that all applicants are treated fairly at every stage of the recruitment process.

To contribute to our exciting future and become part of our team, apply today.

Working for our organisation

Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver our mission of the Best of Care by the Best of People providing excellent care, every time?

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision is achieved for our patients.

As a key partner in the healthcare of our local population, we are keen to deliver this as an outcome of our Trust-wide strategy – Patient First. Using an Operational Excellence approach to align our priorities and operational management structures, we are just over a year and half into our Patient First deployment. We are looking for creative, skilled people to join our Transformation Team and further support us on this journey.

Our culture and values define us here at Medway NHS Foundation Trust and are the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation.

Our BEST values underpin Patient First and are at the core of the care we give to our patients, the support we offer to our staff and our overall leadership approach:

B – Bold

E – Every person counts

S – Sharing and open

T - Together

Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Medicines Optimisation:

To lead the pharmacy medicines optimisation team, currently consisting of a principal pharmacy technician - medicines optimisation and performance management and a senior pharmacy technician – high cost drugs and cancer services.

To develop a vision and strategic direction and lead on the development, planning, implementation and evaluation of long-term strategies, operational policies and standards relating to medicines optimisation.

To lead the cross-cutting medicines efficiency programme for the Trust; identifying, facilitating, tracking and reporting medicine efficiencies. To highlight and explore schemes that are underperforming and bring them back on track where possible.

To work with senior medical, nursing, pharmacy and managerial staff to interrogate and report on medicines usage and expenditure data for their care groups so they can provide data-driven and evidence based reporting on top medicines expenditure and changes in expenditure.

To work with medical, nursing, pharmacy and managerial staff to horizon scan for potential changes in medicines expenditure and the impact on individual drug budgets as a result of changes in drug usage, service developments, new formulations, and updated national, region and local guidance.

General:

Provide effective and enabling leadership across teams and contribute to the culture of leadership promoting equality and the value of diversity. 

Responsible for contributing to a positive, safe, supportive and equitable team culture where all team members have a voice and the values and behaviours of the Trust are evident. 

Deputise for the Chief Pharmacist and Deputy Chief Pharmacist, representing the Trust in external networks, influencing, contributing to and maintaining awareness of national and regional clinical pharmacy strategies, policies, standards and changes in political agendas. 

To be an active member of the Pharmacy Senior Leadership Team and be invested in the development of the department and its people. 

To work with Pharmacy colleagues to promote the reputation of the pharmacy department and Trust to patients and potential staff, through research output such as professional papers, conferences and provision of high quality care and training

Please refer to the job description for further responsibilities.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Master’s degree in pharmacy or equivalent.
  • Postgraduate diploma in a relevant Pharmacy discipline (eg Clinical, General Pharmacy Practice).
  • Specialist higher degree or portfolio of experience at senior managerial level.
  • Professional Registration with General Pharmaceutical Council.
Desirable criteria
  • Mandatory CPD to maintain fitness to practice.

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Knowledge of the requirements of national organisations involved in clinical pharmacy e.g. DoH, RPS, UKCPA
  • Knowledge of Pharmacy computer systems (e.g. CMM/Ascribe)
  • Knowledge of relevant regulations and legislation.
  • Ability to apply abstract and sometimes contradictory data to practice.

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience of working with senior healthcare professionals outside of pharmacy to achieve cross -Trust developments.
  • Experience of managing teams.
  • Experience of carrying out research into practice.
  • Experience of interpreting complex medicines use and expenditure data and demonstrating financial and patient outcome benefit from proper application of its use.

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Be able to provide highly complex information on medicines use and financial issues to multidisciplinary groups involving staff outside of Pharmacy (e.g. MMG, Non-Medical Prescribing Group, Trust Management Teams, Clinical Effectiveness)
  • Computer literate (word processing, spreadsheet, report generation and presentations).
  • Be flexible in responding to demands of the service and job
  • Be able to analyse highly complex information relating to medicines and their uses

Employer certification / accreditation badges

No smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - BronzeDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - SilverDisability confident employerNHS Rainbow badgeStep into health

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.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Simon Matthews
Job title
Deputy Chief Pharmacist
Email address
[email protected]
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