Clinical Pharmacists

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Benefits of the Clinical Pharmacist role

Having a clinical pharmacist in general practice can increase access to healthcare for patients, reduce waiting times for appointments, improve screenings and diagnosis of chronic and common ailments. Clinical Pharmacists provide safety checks on medications for patients, reducing patient harm due to potential adverse effects of medications and reduce the wastage and overuse of medicines.

The clinical pharmacist will consult in the practice like any other clinician and will have time for appointments as well as time to manage non-clinical activities within the practice.

Role duties

The scope of work of a Clinical pharmacist depends on the qualifications, competence, and skills, which is often driven by the setting in which they trained, i.e. community pharmacy, Hospital pharmacy, General Practice.

  • Managing and prescribing for long-term conditions (with complementary skills to the nursing and health care assistant teams)
  • Reviewing patients on complex medicine regimens, such as: likely to cause addiction or dependence medications, high risk medicines
  • Assessing the appropriateness of treatments that require regular follow ups
  • Blood test filing and triaging
  • Taking referrals from other members of the team
  • Stratification of Long-term condition reviews, focusing on high-risk patients
  • Clinical leadership and mentorship
  • Some Clinical pharmacists will develop an expertise in minor ailments or acute presentations, a Clinical pharmacist can also become an Advanced Clinical

Prescription management (often supported by Pharmacy technicians)

  • Dealing with medication for patients recently discharged from
  • Helping the practice deliver QOF or other incentive schemes
  • Delivering repeat prescription
  • Being the point of contact for all medicine-related queries
  • Overseeing the practice’s repeat prescription
  • Audit and
  • Support for prescribing teams in the practice
  • In dispensing practices, pharmacists can take responsibility for the business management of the dispensary

Qualification requirements

Pharmacy professionals must be registered with the GPhC to practice in the UK. To be able to register as a pharmacist, you need to complete a 4-year Master’s degree in pharmacy, followed by 1 Foundation year in which trainees are placed on a competence based programme to enable safe practice under a Pharmacist Supervisor before sitting the final registration exam.

Post graduate qualifications such as a Clinical Diploma or Independent prescribing course are often undertaken as part of the progression in the clinical role of a pharmacist.

Pharmacist independent prescribers must have completed a GPhC accredited training programme. Pharmacist independent prescribers can prescribe any medicine for any medical condition and must work within their own level of professional competence and expertise

Pharmacy professional that are new to General practice undertake an 18 Month Training pathway (Pharmacists) or 15 Month (Pharmacy technicians), this pathway is designed as a 'learning whilst doing the job' approach, and it is fully funded by NHSE for Pharmacy professionals enrolled on the Additional Reimbursement role scheme that are employed by the Primary Care Networks. This training consists in study days (online or face2face), learning set and supervision meetings.

Currently to enable conversion from professionals from other fields of pharmacy, and as part of the Additional roles attached to the practices, there is a National education Pharmacist programme provided by CPPE which is essential to assure the quality and the consistency of the new Clinical Pharmacists working in General practice.

Support and supervision

To enable ongoing registration as pharmacy professionals, all pharmacists must comply with a yearly revalidation process. Clinical pharmacists must have a named Clinical lead/supervisor in the practice to enable support and integration in the team. The time spent with the pharmacist will depend on the experience of the pharmacist but mainly focused on the design of safety pathways to enable internal referrals or escalation of issues within day-to-day practice

Junior Clinical Pharmacists will have a Senior Clinical Pharmacist as support role and will also require supervision from a Clinical mentor within the practice, if they are undertaking any training such as The CPPE Clinical pharmacist national pathway, or an independent prescribing qualifications, there will be some extra time spent with a Clinical mentor, depending on the nature of the training and the skills and experience of the pharmacist.

The Clinical Pharmacist will have a standard appraisal process in place to provide support and further development, from the employer organisation, weather this is a Network, a single practice or a group of practices

Usefull links

Registering as a pharmacist | General Pharmaceutical Council (pharmacyregulation.org)

Standards for pharmacy professionals | General Pharmaceutical Council (pharmacyregulation.org)

GPhC-accredited training programme

Revalidation for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians | General Pharmaceutical Council (pharmacyregulation.org)