Lead Pharmacist, Medicines Information And Formulary | Bedfordshire Hospitals Nhs Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic Pharmacist to join our friendly and supportive Medicines Use and Quality team within the Pharmacy Department at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
You will be responsible for providing a high quality clinical enquiry answering service to healthcare professionals within the Trust and to patients via our established medicines helpline as well as being involved in the transformation and launch of a cross- site service to further respond to local service user need.
You will also be responsible for the review of new medicines and Formulary adherence for both sites of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trusts, as we embark on alignment of our pharmacy procurement and digital systems, working closely with the medical, nursing and pharmacy teams to ensure cost effective use of medicines.
As a senior member of the Pharmacy Department, the post-holder will:
Lead on the delivery and development of a comprehensive, high-quality, efficient Medicines Information and Formulary service in line with local and national objectives.
Support the development of a strategy for Medicines Information and Formulary in line with the departmental strategy
Ensure the systems and processes used by Medicines Information and Formulary are legally and statutory compliant.
Act as a role model for pharmacy staff delivering Medicines Information and Formulary services.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics.
You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career.
We have state-of-the art facilities placing us at the heart of cutting edge health care. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.
Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.
All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering their first six months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required.
Please review all documents attached to this advert to ensure you familiarise yourself with all requirements of the job.
Medicines Information (MI)
• To be accountable for the delivery of a high quality, efficient, specialist Medicines Information service to the Trust, interface, primary care healthcare professionals and members of the public, according to their needs and ensuring compliance with medicines legislation, professional standards and risk minimisation strategies.
• To manage the Medicines Information section including maintenance and up-dating of in-house files and enquiry databases, selection and ordering of appropriate journals and reference sources (paper and electronic).
• To assist in the ongoing development of the Medicines Information services in the Trust, by proposing and implementing policy and service developments.
• To support the Pharmacy department in fulfilling medicines management responsibilities by provision of specialist pharmaceutical input to, and active or involvement in, the development and implementation of• medication protocols and policies
• shared care guidelines
• formulary reviews and evaluations
• patient group directions, ensuring compliance with legislation
• multidisciplinary team working
• To produce and present policies at meetings and Trust committees for ratification as appropriate.
• To provide active Medicines Information to other healthcare professionals by the production of targeted information.
• To organise and manage the Medicines Information Service in continuously reviewing and updating the in-house Medicines Information sources according to guidelines from the UKMi.
• To answer MI queries from health professionals across Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and support other staff to answer their own MI queries, supporting the in-house training of pharmacists in this respect.
• To disseminate information about new drugs, licence changes, ADRs, and other Medicines Information as appropriate to the rest of the pharmacy department and to contribute to the shortages management programme (support with memo production, enquiries and dissemination of information) in conjunction with the clinical and operations team.
• To support maintenance and development of the in-house MI database for the efficient storage and retrieval of past enquiries and the production of workload reports.
• To be responsible for audit within the Medicines Information Service and include findings in reports to the Department Senior Leadership Meetings. Performance of the service should be monitored against UKMi standards and user satisfaction, using feedback questionnaires and peer review.
• To maintain up-to-date procedures and guidelines for staff working in Medicines Information.
• To train pharmacy staff (including Rotational Pharmacists, Pre-registration Pharmacists, Pre-registration Pharmacy Technicians and any new Pharmacists or Technicians) in the provision of Medicines Information services according to UKMi standards including the use of computer databases.
Formulary
• Develop and ensure support to the formulary processes for the introduction of new medicines into the Trust through: critical appraisal of clinical evidence, economic evaluation, risk assessment, robust prioritisation, recommended placement in treatment, audit of the processes.
• To assist in providing drug reviews, pathway development and medical information support to the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee.
• To maintain and review the net formulary entries following output from the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and ICS formulary committees in conjunction with the ICB
• To assist with the monitoring and management of one off and/or non-formulary requests, including onward reporting to the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and associated actions
• To represent the Medicines Use Team at Formulary related committees (internal and external)
• To support procurement teams with formulary medicines reconciliation as a result of system mergers and alignment.
• To support the procurement team with assessing implications of contract changes and help deal with supply issues and product discontinuations.
• To support the CSL pharmacy teams with monitoring adherence to formulary, assessing non formulary medicine use, supporting with formulary applications on behalf of the drugs and Therapeutics committee and reviewing current formulary medicines use.
• Review the status and cost effectiveness of medicines already on the formulary.
• To work with the commissioning pharmacist to support with formulary aspects associated with implementation of new medicines, NICE Technology Appraisals, medication switches (biosimilars, generics)
• To undertake other duties as reasonably requested by the Medicines Use and Quality Manager
This advert closes on Friday 2 Feb 2024