Job overview

Principal Pharmacist - Critical Care and Surgery

The post holder is responsible for leading, delivery, developing and evaluating the provision of clinical pharmacy services to Critical Care, Anaesthetics, Surgery and Radiology across Croydon Health 
Services NHS Trust (CHS).

The post holder will be responsible for formulating long term strategic plans in line with Trust and departmental strategy. 
The post holder will:
- Provide expert clinical pharmacy service to all staff and patients associated within Critical Care,  Anaesthetics, Surgery and Radiology, 
- Act as a role model and local expert in the critical care and surgery pharmacy field 
- Responsible for education and training in medicines management for the multi-disciplinary teams in these areas
- Provide effective clinical governance to manage risk and embed clinical audit practices to improve safety and quality of services provided
- Responsible for developing initiatives and guidelines to ensure safe and cost effective use of medicines in these areas

The post holder will provide a high quality clinical pharmacy service which meets the  needs of patients and healthcare professionals within and associated with the Trust. They will develop and implement medicine management systems concerned with Critical Care and Surgery services 
throughout CHS, and will act as the main point of contact between the directorate (Critical care and  Surgery) and Pharmacy.

Interview Date week 24th November

Main duties of the job

1.0         Specialist Clinical Services

1.1 To support and assist the Associate Chief Pharmacist in the development and delivery of the overall strategy for the Pharmacy Department

1.2 Support the Associate Chief Pharmacist in the development and delivery of the Pharmacy 

1.3 To provide clear leadership and direction ensuring that the Pharmacy’s Clinical services meets the needs of the pharmacy department, patients, clinicians, other services users, where innovation is encouraged and provided an environment which is attractive to high calibre staff, thus supporting recruitment and retention.

2.0         Independent Prescribing

To work as a non-medical independent prescriber (if qualified) within scope of clinical knowledge and competence in agreed clinical area(s) / patient groups within their role. This may include continuation of medications during medicines reconciliation, discharge prescribing,initiating/monitoring/optimising/deprescribing medications as part of pharmacist role within the MDT.  The post holder will prescribe in line with their agreed scope of practice and Trust policies.

3.0         Management & leadership

To work with the Chief Pharmacist and the Associate Chief Pharmacist – Clinical services, to support senior pharmacy staff to develop a departmental strategy which translates into the management of the clinical service including financial and business planning, governance, clinical activity and service improvement

Working for our organisation

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust provide hospital and community services from a number of community and specialist clinics throughout Croydon. The Trust was formed on 1st August 2010 through the integration of Croydon Community Health Services and Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust. Around 4,100 staff provide services for a population of over 360,000 people who are relatively young with a high level of ethnic diversity. 

Our main hospital site, Croydon University Hospital is one of the busiest in London. We’re also leading the way in providing more healthcare outside hospitals at clinics, specialist centres and in people’s homes. Our experienced district nursing teams, Allied Health Professionals and community matrons look after people of all ages across Croydon and our Children’s Hospital at Home cares for children with long-term conditions without them having to come to hospital. 

Across the NHS everyone is working hard to meet growing demand and we’re no exception. But with the right people on board, we are rising to this challenge, putting our people in the driving seat, encouraging innovation and transforming our services to give local people the quality of care they deserve. Croydon Health Services puts a great deal of importance on education and training throughout the careers of all of our staff. As well as offering access to a range of core skills training and professional development.