Lead Pharmacist, Medicines Safety OfficerNHS

Job summary

Lead as the named individual within the organisation for encouraging medication incident reporting and learning. Identify themes or trends with medicines incidents and oversee development and deployment of appropriate action plans and advise risk management where reporting could be improved.

Closing Date: Please be advised that this job advert will close as soon as sufficient applications have been received. Please apply for this job as soon as you can, if interested.

Successful applicants will be required to provide an immunisation and vaccination report, from either their current UK occupational health provider or their UK GP.

Main duties of the job

The Medicines Safety Officer (MSO) promotes the safe use of medicines across their organisation and is expected to be an expert in this area. You will have the opportunity to be an active member of both the National Medication Safety Network and Regional Medicines Safety Group in order to keep up to date with current priorities.

The role involves working closely with the Pharmacy Governance and Safety Team and Associate Director of Pharmacy (Trust Medicines Assurance and Pharmacy Governance) to drive change and improvement in medicines safety both within the pharmacy department and Trustwide. The Associate Director of Pharmacy, alongside the Medicines Policy and Practice and Medicines Safety Committee members will support you to provide assurance to Trust board around safe medication practices.

You will work closely with the Quality and Clinical Effectiveness Department, medical, nursing and pharmacy staff as well as senior managers, Clinical Directors and patient representatives to ensure that resources are used effectively to provide the best possible care to our patients. This may involve providing expert advice, identifying and managing risks or producing business cases in order to improve services.

As chair of the Medication Safety Committee you will report to the Trust Medicines Optimisation Committee, and may be asked to attend Speciality Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) meetings and the Nursing and Midwifery Care Quality Forum.

Job description

• Lead on medicines safety for the pharmacy department and provide assurance to the Chief Pharmacist and Pharmacy SLT that pharmacy services are safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led and represent efficient use of resources.
• Lead as the named individual within the organisation for encouraging medication incident reporting and learning. Identify themes or trends with medicines incidents and oversee development and deployment of appropriate action plans and advise risk management where reporting could be improved.
• Lead on collaborative workstreams related to improving medication safety by communicating medication risks and associated mitigation strategies.
• Lead and oversee programme of work to manage medicines shortages, contribute to and support local decision making processes and prioritisation for new medicines or new uses of medicines, in line with national priorities (e.g. critical shortages) and statutory policy, ensuring decision makers are aware of clinical and financial implications of decisions made.
• Support the Associate Director of Pharmacy on service evaluation and audit of all aspects of the pharmacy service including planning and overseeing an audit programme to ensure that appropriate statutory, professional and service obligations are met and quality targets achieved.
• Support the Associate Director of Pharmacy on the development of and maintain both local and organisational policies and standard operating procedures that are evidence based and comply with legal and current guidance thus providing tools to maintain the safe and secure handling of medicines.
• To input into the use of digital solutions available to improve the safety of medicines use, support the implementation, maintenance and monitoring of pharmacy information systems including electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA)
• Lead on internal communications (related to medicines safety and shortages) within the pharmacy department and external communications to key stakeholders, using effective and appropriate means, including websites and social media.
• To develop, monitor and implement the Trust strategy around medication safety through clinical leadership.
• To work closely with the Director of Pharmacy on the system-wide strategy on medicines safety, including key areas of risk (polypharmacy, high risk drugs, dependence forming medicines, antimicrobials, etc.)

For further details of the role please see the attached job description.

About us

We are extremely proud of our employees across our hospital sites, with high quality patient care at the heart of everything we do.

Boasting some of the most modern facilities in Western Europe, the Trust is renowned for being at the forefront of research and innovation as part of its blossoming reputation as a worldwide leader in healthcare.

We are proud to be recognised as a Pathway to Excellence designated organisation - please click the link for further details about this prestigious award. Pathway To Excellence - University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (uhcw.nhs.uk)

By joining our exciting journey, you will form part of a passionate, talented team and will be able to access a wide range of learning and development opportunities. There has never been a better time to join our team.

The Trust is committed to building an organisation that makes full use of the talents, skills, experience, and different perspectives available in our diverse society. We want everyone to feel they are respected, valued, can achieve their potential and receive the most appropriate and relevant care. We will create an environment where the equality and human rights principles of fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy are promoted and are part of the organisation's core values.