Highly Specialist – Antimicrobial and Infection Control Pharmacist
Barts Health Pharmacy Department are looking for a motivated individual who is ambitious and forward-thinking with clinical experience in antimicrobials to join our Pharmacy team at Newham University Hospital. This post is a fixed term post to cover a 12 month maternity leave period. The Trust is one of the largest and busiest in the UK and at the leading edge of medicine. It provides a full range of local and tertiary hospital services across its different sites.
The post holder will be supporting the Clinical Services Manager in leading a team of staff in promoting high quality, cost-effective and safe prescribing. They will lead on the provision of Antimicrobial services to the Newham University Hospital site.
The post holder will participate in the education and training for staff in the pharmacy team at Barts Health and will assist in the provision and development of clinical pharmacy within the service.
You will be supported to further develop your abilities as a senior leader via a combination of internal and external training programmes, alongside developing your clinical acumen.
We welcome applications from individuals with excellent communications skills who demonstrate a patient‑centred focus and compassionate and collaborative leadership. You will require excellent prioritisation skills and have a passion for service review and quality improvement.
Main duties of the job
Roles and responsibilities include (but not limited to):
- Lead for antimicrobial stewardship and Infection control at Newham University Hospital, co‑ordinating rounds and attendance at MDT meeting to optimise antimicrobial usage and support pathway for OPAT.
- Optimisation of medicine use in individual patients.
- Close working with the multidisciplinary antimicrobial and Infection control team and wider pharmacy team to optimise patient flow.
- Provide an advanced clinical pharmacy service to patients receiving or being considered for OPAT. (This includes evaluating medication of individual patients for interactions, duplication etc, using medicines information and research findings to manage therapeutic problems, reduce risks and advise other healthcare professionals).
- Provide specialist advice to patients, medical and multidisciplinary care teams on antimicrobial treatment by attending ward rounds or the OPAT MDT meeting as deemed appropriate.
- To develop and implement formulary guidance, based on the available evidence.
- To proactively support the team in identifying and delivering medication‑related cost‑improvement plans.
- To ensure the safe transfer of prescribing and monitoring as patients are transferred between care settings.
- To support the Pharmacy Clinical Services Manager in achieving Pharmacy Quality Performance Targets.
Person Specification
Qualifications
- MPharm Degree in Pharmacy
- Registered with GPhC
- Postgraduate Pharmacy Qualification or equivalent experience (minimum postgraduate diploma level)
- Independent prescribing qualification, or willing to undergo training to become a non‑medical prescriber
Knowledge
- Understanding of GPhC revalidation requirements
- Advanced knowledge of antimicrobial therapy and stewardship, including appropriate selection, dosing, monitoring, and de‑escalation of antimicrobials
- Strong understanding of national and local guidelines relating to antimicrobial use, infection control, and OPAT services.
- Comprehensive knowledge of medicines optimisation principles, including drug interactions, therapeutic drug monitoring, and safe, effective prescribing practices.
- Understanding of infection prevention and control principles, including management of healthcare‑associated infections and antimicrobial resistance.
- Knowledge of clinical governance, risk management, and medicines safety, including audit processes, incident investigation (e.g. root cause analysis), and quality improvement methodologies.
- Awareness of interface working and patient pathways, including transfer of care between primary and secondary care, OPAT delivery models, and prescribing responsibilities across systems.
- Knowledge of risk management issues relevant to the patient group and root cause analysis.
Skills
- Excellent and effective interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
- Able to complete documentation accurately with attention to detail
- Assertive, diplomatic, persuasive with ability to negotiate
- Ability to plan, prioritise and organise self, and others
- Ability to manage time effectively and work to deadlines
- Able to work unsupervised, follow written instruction and work under pressure IT literate; able to use Microsoft office with intermediate IT skills including, accurate data entry and use of specialist computer programmes
- Evidence of good ward practice
- Ability to motivate and act as a role model
- Good team worker
- Demonstrates initiative and critical appraisal skills
Experience
- Significant Experience post registration in a hospital based clinical post
- Experience of working with antimicrobial stewardship or infection control teams, contributing to optimisation of antimicrobial use.
- Demonstrable successful performance in a previous clinical post
- Experience of providing evaluated information on drug expenditure
- Experience of supervising staff and basic teaching in a hospital setting through training others e.g. trainee / junior pharmacists / other HCPs
- Successful experience of managing & leading projects
- Experience of successfully managing staff, performing appraisals and giving feedback
- Experience of managing guidelines and PGDs relevant to the speciality
- Experience of managing medication incidents
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
£59,490 to £66,239 a year per annum inc pro rata
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