Job overview

If you are enthusiastic and passionate about improving the lives of patients in need of mental healthcare treatment, then this role as a Specialist Pharmacist in our Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Trust could be right for you.  We have an exciting opportunity for an innovative, skilled clinical pharmacist to work as a core member of inpatient and rehab teams across the West Sussex.

You should have an interest for working within a specialist mental health service, understanding of medicines used and an awareness of the people we care for. The role will primarily be based at Langley Green Hospital (Crawley), Meadowfield Hospital (Worthing) and/or Oaklands Centre (Chichester). 

The postholder will be supported to undertake further accreditations, and there are opportunities to develop the role and service, allowing your vision for clinical care to grow with the service in a collaborative, holistic and accessible therapeutic environment. 

You will be joining a friendly, supportive Pharmacy team which is highly regarded in the Trust and is rapidly expanding due to recent significant investments.  This role is a great opportunity to start or continue a career in mental health and can lead to a future senior role.

The pharmacy leadership team is committed to education and training of the pharmacy workforce and will provide access to external training (including the introductory College of Mental Health Pharmacy Psych1 and Psych 2 programme).

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide a clinical pharmacy and medicines optimisation service to ensure patients get the best from their medicines, as well as a strong commitment to medicines education and training so that patients, pharmacy staff and other healthcare professionals are well informed and able to manage their use of medicines correctly, safely and cost effectively.

The role requires an excellent clinical communicator with an interest in patient facing and multidisciplinary team working.  In addition, the appraisal of clinical evidence and generation of high quality pharmacotherapeutic advice to support colleagues will feature as a core part of working.

Inpatient services increasingly interface with community services and primary care partners to ensure the best transition across primary and secondary care. Pharmacist input into these processes is crucial to maintain medicines safety and optimisation.

There is currently no commitment to weekend or dispensary working.  On call is for advice only and is currently more than 1 in 30 weeks, with senior support provided and only band 7 and above are on the on-call rota.

Working for our organisation

Sussex Partnership is one of the largest mental health trusts in the UK. We are a friendly and committed pharmacy team, who are keen to support the wellbeing of our patients and each other.  

About us

As a mental health trust, Sussex Partnership places a huge focus on the wellbeing of our staff, as well as ensuring our reward packages reflect the immensely important work they do.

You can expect:

• • Access to full psychological support, the wellbeing team
  • Excellent supervision programmes. 
  • Flexible working opportunities
  • Access to a host of discount schemes (including gyms, shopping, restaurants and cars)
  • A position within a trust rated as Outstanding for caring and Good overall by the CQC
  • Generous holiday entitlement (starting at 27 days + 8 bank holidays)
  • Excellent NHS Pension Scheme