Job summary
- Main area
- Pharmacy
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 319-7866680JA
- Employer
- Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- North Tyneside General Hospital
- Town
- North Shields
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 pro rata per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 12/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Lead Clinical Pharmacist - Cancer Services
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022). Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is…the Northumbria Way!
What the Northumbria Way means for you:
- Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
- Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
- A range of flexible working opportunities
- Generous annual leave and pension scheme
- Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
- Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
- Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank
We work closely with Kids First Nurseries that are based within our trust grounds at Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Hexham hospitals to care for our Trust family's children, they offer care for children from 6 weeks old up to 4 years. There are a number of funding options run by the government to help working parents, including Early Years Funding and Tax Free Childcare.
Flexible working offers choice in where, when, and how we work, ensuring patients remain at the heart of all we do. It’s open to everyone, and we aim to find solutions that work for both you and the organisation. All arrangements must be reasonable and balanced to maintain safe and effective patient care.
We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated ‘outstanding’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.
We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.
If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.
Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.
Job overview
Lead Clinical Pharmacist - Cancer Services
We have a fantastic opportunity for a motivated and experienced pharmacist to join our senior team as the Lead Clinical Pharmacist for Cancer Services at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
You will be an exceptional leader who will further develop and shape the provision of clinical pharmacy services across Oncology & Haematology at Northumbria. There will be an expectation that you will work across the 4 pillars of practice (clinical, leadership, research and education). Our Oncology and Haematology teams are open to discussions around specific clinical areas, this will be decided based on candidates previous experience and areas of interest. We encourage quality improvement across our service and welcome candidates interested in wider research profiles. We have multiple areas for teaching exposure throughout the trust and would support candidates to gain exposure in this area. Service leadership is a key component to the tole and will be supported by clinical teams.
We are open to discussions around regional/national exposure and have supported staff to undertake such work to develop themselves and the pharmacy profession.
You may already be a lead clinical pharmacist, be awaiting a new challenge, or an experienced pharmacist ready to take the next step in your career.
Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received.
Main duties of the job
Northumbria has a large cancer service covering haematology and solid cancers across four main hospitals (North Tyneside, Cramlington, Wansbeck & Hexham) and two rural units (Berwick & Alnwick). As Lead Clinical Pharmacist you will be responsible for the provision, development and leadership of the clinical pharmacy service for cancer services trustwide and will support excellence in patient care.
You will work closely with medical and nursing staff, managers and other colleagues, building key relationships both in and outside the trust. You will provide clinical cover to the Oncology Day Units managing chemotherapy patients, with opportunities to work in clinics alongside oncologists/haematologists.
You will be the Trust Lead for Chemotherapy, ensuring all objectives of chemotherapy service provision are met.
You will lead on matters around medicines management (risk, clinical governance, R&D, formulary, expenditure) and develop/audit relevant protocols and guidelines.
You will undertake a significant leadership and oversight role in the management of the Trust's chemotherapy ePMA system.
You will manage, mentor and support the further development of staff delivering clinical pharmacy cancer services across the trust, including pharmacist prescribers, Chemotherapy Pharmacy technicians and Chemotherapy Medicines Assistants working in the service.
Working for our organisation
The trust manages three major hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals in addition to our state-of-the-art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. We also care for people in their homes and provide services from facilities in local communities such as health centres. We give people greater choice and control over their care to help them live independently at home and avoid hospital admission where appropriate. High quality patient care is at the heart of everything we do and we strive to ensure every single patient and service user has an exceptional experience.
We are delivering new ways of providing direct patient care in acute and community settings, including providing care to our frail/high risk patients living in their own homes or care homes. We are also increasing our service within primary medical care practices, enabling delivery of care to patients with long-term conditions as part of a multidisciplinary approach.
Our team is welcoming to new members and forward thinking in its development of our staff. We continue to be a leading light in the country for the number of pharmacist prescribers, for the development of innovative roles, including ward medicines assistants and for the integrated approach to workforce that delivers services across our system.
The pharmacy department is committed to staff development to ensure team members fulfil their potential.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
As Lead Clinical Pharmacist for Cancer Services, you will be responsible for the provision, development, management and leadership of the clinical pharmacy service for Cancer services trust wide to support excellence in patient care.
You will be the Northumbria Trust Lead for Chemotherapy, ensuring that all objectives of chemotherapy service provision are met.
You will lead on matters pertaining to medicines management, advise on medicines use (risk, clinical governance, research and development, formulary, expenditure) and develop/audit relevant protocols and guidelines.
To undertake a significant leadership and oversight role in the management of the trust's electronic prescribing and medicines administration chemotherapy system.
Manage, support and teach when appropriate, less experienced staff e.g. junior pharmacists, pharmacy students, chemotherapy technicians and ward medicines assistants, and other members of the healthcare team (e.g. nursing and medical staff).
Support the pharmacy team in participation at medical and other ward rounds as well as multi-disciplinary team meetings as appropriate.
Contribute to the running of pharmacy by taking responsibility / leading team within functional area(s), out of hours service, roster management, medicines information, collation/reporting against clinical key performance indicators.
Support the acute pharmacy service through weekend working and on-call provision across our acute sites.
Be a role model for compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries.
You will be a good communicator and able to demonstrate commitment and excellence through your own clinical practice, incorporating independent prescribing. You will work with and build relationships with key partners and stakeholders across the organisation to deliver the very best care to our patients.
As a senior pharmacist within the team you will provide effective leadership to support our team in delivering excellent care to patients across the trust, in particular within Cancer services (haematology and oncology).
You will be adaptive and flexible, supporting national and local strategy around patient care and medicines optimisation targets.
Person specification
Qualifications/Professional Registration
Essential criteria
- First degree - vocational master’s degree in pharmacy or equivalent.
- Registered with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
- Postgraduate clinical qualification (over and above that of the 1st degree, preferably at Masters level) and/or significant relevant clinical experience to demonstrate an advanced level of theoretical and applied knowledge.
- Independent Prescribing Qualification (if candidates do not currently hold a prescribing qualification, they must complete within 12 months from their start date)
- Evidence of continuing professional development to at least meet the mandatory requirements of the GPhC
- IT skills to at least ECDL standard or equivalent experience
Desirable criteria
- Member of Royal Pharmaceutical Society and/or other professional groups to facilitate continuing professional development
Other
Essential criteria
- It is an essential requirement of the role that the post holder has a valid driving licence and is either a car owner and able to use the car for work purposes, or has a Trust personal lease vehicle which may be used for the role. However, the Trust would consider making reasonable adjustments to the role, if necessary, to enable a disabled person to undertake the role.
Experience and Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Significant and relevant post-registration experience
- Experience of supervising staff
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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Sarah Chandler
- Job title
- Deputy Chief Pharmacist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07500 783229
- Additional information
Kate Smith
Lead Clinical Pharmacist for Workforce Development
07876004035
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