Senior Medicines Information Pharmacist

+ Work as part of a high-performing team to provide medicines information and advice within Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust and to other service users in accordance with established policies and procedures.
+ Utilise your expertise to train a wide variety of pharmacy and non-pharmacy staff to provide medicines information and advice professionally and effectively.
+ Maintain a theoretical and practical knowledge of medicines optimisation in primary and secondary care as it applies to the service needs.
+ Assist in the development of training programmes and provide training in medicines information skills to trainee and junior pharmacists.
+ Support the delivery of local projects for service development as requested by the Principal Pharmacist for Medicines Advice
+ Be responsible for the provision of medicines management as part of clinical services provided directly to patients.

Working for our organisation
Our values help us to define and develop our culture, what we do and how we do it. It is important that you understand and reflect these values throughout your employment with the Trust.
The post holder will:
+ Put patients first
+ Take pride in what they do
+ Respect others
+ Strive to be the best
+ Act with integrity
Our values and behaviours framework describes what it means for every one of us in the Trust to put our values into action.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical Enquiry Answering
Provide clinical medicines advice to a range of healthcare professionals. This involves:
+ Receiving and recording complex questions frequently related to patient care, clarifying the clinical problem to be addressed.
+ Defining a search strategy in order to inform the response and researching the answer. This may sometimes involve the use of the individual pharmacist's professional knowledge and expertise.
+ Evaluating the information retrieved and making a judgement, often where there is conflicting advice.
+ Formulating an accurate, evaluated and impartial answer to ensure the safe and effective use of medicines.
+ Delivering the answer in an accurate, timely and helpful manner tailored to the individual healthcare professional's needs and route of communication.
+ To participate in relevant departmental developments/projects and attend appropriate monthly staff and continued professional development meetings.
Training
+ To support the training in medicines information skills and knowledge of trainee, STEP (Structured Training and Experience for Pharmacists), and other rotational staff.
+ To assist in the preparation and delivery of training materials and programmes and provide MI training for other pharmacy staff and health care personnel as requested by the Principal Pharmacist for Medicines Advice.
+ To actively participate in the departmental journal club.
Clinical Governance
+ To participate in Quality Assurance and peer review of MI enquiries completed to ensure that the enquiries meet the standards defined in the UKMI Quality Assurance for Enquiry Answering. This includes ensuring that the work is completed appropriately to a high standard using professional judgement and expertise to the agreed timescales.
+ To accurately document enquiries onto the bespoke software package, MiDatabank
+ To attend, in agreement with the Principal Pharmacist for Medicines Advice regional meetings to participate in and keep abreast of new developments as well as to build and establish networks with colleagues.
Pharmacy Clinical Services
+ To provide a clinical ward pharmacy service to promote safe, clinically effective and cost-efficient use of medicines in patients.
+ To dispense at ward level when appropriate or assist in the dispensary during staff shortages (in agreement with line manager).
+ To establish good working relationships at ward level and pro-actively contribute to activities that will help to improve patient experience.
+ To carry out audits or service evaluations in agreement with line manager.
+ To participate in the Pharmacy department rota duties by arrangement with the Director of Medicines Information, this includes the weekend rota.
Financial responsibilities
+ The post-holder will not have budgetary responsibilities but will be expected to help ensure that the budgetary sum is managed appropriately in year by supporting efficiencies where possible.
Management and Professional Responsibilities
+ To supervise and mentor rotational staff in Medicines Information providing advice and impromptu collaboration as required.
+ To act as the Team Leader and organise a broad range of activities, adjusting plans to reflect a changing work environment.
+ Deputise for the Highly Specialist Pharmacist (Medicines Information) in their absence.
+ To participate fully in the appraisal process and develop a strategy for continuing professional development in accordance with professional standards.
+ In consultation with the post-holder, undertake any other duties appropriate to the grade as requested by the Principal Pharmacist for Medicines Advice.
Guy's and St Thomas' celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study's at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual's personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis.
Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now."

Guy's and St Thomas' is among the UK's busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy's is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas' has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children's Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King's Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King's College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of 'good'. Our adult community services achieved a rating of 'outstanding'.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS., Guy's and St Thomas' Medicines Information (MI) department, based at Guy's Hospital, is one of the busiest in the country and employs approximately 20 staff (including Clinical Governance and Formulary). In addition, at any one time, there are up to 8 trainee and junior pharmacists rotating through MI as part of their training programme.
The teams provide an enquiry answering service to:
+ Healthcare professionals working at Guy's hospital, St. Thomas' Hospital, Evelina Children's Hospital, King's College Hospital and The Princess Royal University Hospital.
+ Health care professionals working in community services and primary care
+ Patients via our dedicated patient 'Medicines Helpline'
+ Primary care healthcare professionals via the Medicines Helpline
The team also undertakes pro-active work and contributes to local, regional and national MI outputs. It is one of the national centres commissioned to provide medicines advice for primary care as part of the Specialist Pharmacy Services (SPS).