Clinical Pharmacist, Mental Health, Band 6
The closing date is 11 May 2026.
We are seeking a pharmacist to join the specialist mental health pharmacy team for maternity cover. This fixed‑term position is for 11 months, with the possibility of a secondment. The role is based within the larger pharmacy department and will involve travel across Gloucestershire to wards and units.
Responsibilities
- Deliver a comprehensive clinical pharmacy and medicines management service to patients under the care of GHC and to the multidisciplinary teams responsible for their care.
- Provide clinical cover to the mental health dispensary to promote safe, rational, effective and cost‑effective use of medicines.
- Support patients and their families by providing advice about medication use, optimising treatment, and liaising with acute and other care providers to ensure seamless transfer of care.
- Promote good physical health and well‑being of patients under GHC Mental Health services by providing expert advice and performing interventions to improve physical health.
- Support pharmacy staff to deliver an effective dispensing and supply service.
- Undertake patient‑focused improvement projects (with training, support and supervision).
- Commit to weekend and bank holiday working on a rota basis covering the acute trust Gloucestershire Hospitals NHSFT Pharmacy.
Clinical Pharmacy Services to Inpatient Wards and Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs)
- Be responsible and accountable for providing a clinical pharmacy service to inpatient wards and community teams.
- Ensure that designated ward and team bases are visited by a pharmacist at agreed intervals.
- Regularly attend and contribute to multidisciplinary team meetings.
- Proactively review, rationalise and optimise patients' medications.
- Review all prescriptions regularly, ensuring adherence to legislation, national and local guidelines and formularies.
- Advise on individual drug treatments, including possible adverse effects and interactions.
- Undertake medicines reconciliation assurance in conjunction with the medicines management technicians.
- Deal with and report medication incidents.
- Work to improve patients' concordance with medication.
- Provide information to staff, patients and their representatives, including individual counselling on newly prescribed medicines and discharge counselling.
- Produce comprehensive patient medication histories as needed.
- Maintain appropriate clinical documentation and records, including intervention/contribution monitoring and outcome data.
- Advise prescribers and other healthcare professionals on clinical pharmacy issues, answer queries and solve complex problems.
- Work across traditional boundaries as part of a fully integrated multidisciplinary team.
- Provide advice to clinicians on unlicensed medicines use and areas of practice where the evidence base is lacking and medical opinion may differ.
- Responsibly check controlled drug stocks on wards and outside units as per trustwide audit criteria.
Dispensary Duties
- The post includes a commitment as per the team rota to provide cover to the mental health dispensary.
- Clinically check prescriptions, ensuring adherence to legislation and formularies.
- Dispense and accuracy‑check prescriptions.
- Supervise pharmacy staff, including pharmacists and technicians as needed.
- Ensure supplies are sent to wards and units in a timely manner.
- Access and interpret patients' test results from pathology systems and other sources, including clozapine monitoring systems.
- Coordinate responses to email and telephone enquiries.
Education and Training
- Contribute to the delivery of educational sessions provided by the mental health pharmacy team.
- Proactively support the learning of others about mental health pharmacy within the pharmacy team and MDT.
- Support the development of training materials in line with local and national objectives, with supervision.
- Identify own development needs, aligning these to service requirements and personal aspirations, and proactively develop and improve own practice.
- Undertake all mandatory training.
Communication and Working Relationships
- Identify and respond to specialist medication information needs of patients, carers, doctors, nurses and other members of the healthcare team.
- Ensure information, which may be highly complex, is provided in a timely manner, in an appropriate format for the individual or group.
- Present information in a suitable format (written and/or verbal) and style for the target audience. Barriers to effective communication may include learning disability, language difficulties, cognitive impairment and non‑consenting/non‑compliant patients.
- Communicate with other members of the pharmacy team.
Leadership
- Act as a positive role model to all colleagues, and motivate and inspire others.
- Demonstrate innovation and a commitment to developing the services delivered.
- Deputise for others where delegated/instructed.
Safe Systems of Work
- Accountable for own professional actions and activities, guided by legislation, national and local policies, procedures and protocols.
- Implement and/or follow agreed governance initiatives such as incident/error reporting.
- Ensure a safe working practice and environment through legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work Act and COSHH regulations, along with local policies and procedures including manual handling.
Improving Quality and Developing Practice
- Comply with requirements to register with the GPhC and ensure own professional development is maintained by keeping up to date with practice developments.
- An annual appraisal (development conversation) is implemented for all staff with their line manager.
- Develop and maintain clinical skills and knowledge necessary to deliver an evidence‑based service.
- Attend and contribute to pharmacy team meetings, which may involve clinical presentations and case studies.
- With supervision and assistance take on increased responsibility recognising own limitations and seeking help appropriately.
- Understand and contribute to the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, protocols and guidelines relevant to the specialist area.
- Openly question and challenge practice in a constructive way so that standards of patient care are continually evaluated and improved.
- Promote a research culture within the pharmacy department (e.g., by participating in publishing articles, projects and audits).
- Participate in local projects and audits and the Trust wide medicines audit programme.
Other Responsibilities
- Have awareness of mentally ill, sick and dying patients and have exposure to distressing or emotional situations due to the patient cohort.
- Deal with medicines information queries from patients, medical and other healthcare professionals, using a wide range of information sources both electronic and hard copy regarding drug‑related queries.
- Occasional handling of potentially hazardous substances (e.g., cytotoxic medication) in accordance with standard operating procedures and COSHH regulations.
- Physical effort for lifting and moving light packages between locations.
- Requirement for frequent long periods of concentration when validating or checking prescriptions/calculations, dealing with interruptions for advice/requests as per service demand.
- Be competent in the use of all relevant Trust IT systems including the electronic patient record, email, Microsoft Office and pathology systems.
- Contribute to and champion departmental sustainability initiatives.
- Undertake any other duties as deemed fit by the GHFT pharmacy management.
Person Specification
Experience
- Experience in hospital pharmacy.
- Experience in mental health pharmacy.
Qualifications
- Current GPhC registration.
- United Kingdom recognised degree in Pharmacy.
- Evidence of ongoing professional development through revalidation/portfolio.
- Post graduate diploma in clinical pharmacy or equivalent skills.
- Certificate in psychiatric pharmacy or gain equivalent specialist knowledge.
Knowledge / Skills
- Able to work alone and unsupervised.
- Able to use initiative and prioritise workload as well as work in a team.
- Excellent and efficient time management skills.
- Able to effectively and appropriately escatate concerns to reduce risk and promote safety.
- Intermediate competence in standard range of IT programs.
- Concentration and accuracy required for clinical validation and accuracy checking prescriptions and performing calculations.
- Work effectively as a member of the multi‑disciplinary team.
Personal Attributes
- Reliable, adaptable and dependable.
- Self‑motivated.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and requires a submission for Disclosure to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Benefits
£39,959 to £48,117 a year (pa, pro rata if part‑time). The Trust offers an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities, generous annual leave, access to the NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, two on‑site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition schemes and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
Working Pattern
Mon‑Fri 8:30‑4:30 (plus weekend working and EDC as per rota).
Contact
Phone: 0300 422 6289.
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