Specialist Frailty Pharmacist

Company Description

Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.

Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

Job Description

Specialist Frailty Pharmacist

NHS Band 8a Salary: £57,528 - £64,750 per annum

Hours Per Week: Full time 37.5

Contract Type: Fixed Term for 12 months

Job Purpose:

• To be the lead pharmacist for Urgent Care Frailty utilising specialist clinical knowledge to provide a high quality pharmaceutical service to patients
• Support medicines optimisation of patients with frailty within the Emergency Department, the Older Persons Medicine and Frailty Same Day emergency Care (OSDEC) service, and the Acute Medical Unit.
• Play an integral role in the planning, development and delivery of the Trust’s restructuring of patient pathways within frailty and elderly care. This will involve working with members of the MDT in order to provide excellent clinical care as well as developing the Trust’s ability to meet the demands of an ageing population.
• Work with key stakeholders to ensure the delivery of novel integrated services for frail patients across traditional care boundaries.
• Provide expert clinical knowledge and advice on frailty medicine to enable the Pharmacy department to continue to develop its links with local Primary Care Networks (PCNs), including expanding the opportunity to create integrated roles across the secondary care and primary care boundary.
• To integrate the de-prescribing tool for use on frailty and elderly care wards which enables pharmacists and medical teams to de-prescribe in a structured and evidenced based manner therefore addressing the issue of polypharmacy.
• Practice as a non-medical prescriber focusing on frailty in the Emergency Department, OSDEC and the Acute Medical Unit.
• To carry out general dispensing and associated clinical and pharmaceutical duties and to assist with the provision of the general pharmaceutical service
• To provide expert advice on pharmaceutical matters when carrying out clinical pharmacy services to wards

Key Responsibilities

• Shared Core Functions

• Proactively and positively contribute to the achievement of deliverables through individual and team effort. Manage the production of the required deliverables and control risks.

• Support team members to deliver on their functionally relevant objectives through offering advice, guidance and support as appropriate.

• Ensure that resources are used effectively and in accordance with agreed procedures

• Liaison with Senior Professionals and related functions to ensure that work is neither overlooked nor duplicated

• Build and sustain effective communications with other roles involved in the shared services as required

• Maintain and continuously improve specialist knowledge in an aspect of Health Service which significantly contributes to the Trust’s stated objectives & aims

• Establish and maintain strategic links with a range of external partners/stakeholders or manage the links made through the team. Engage with external partners/stakeholders to gain their necessary level of contribution & commitment to the successful delivery of your work.

• Undertake evidence-based practice for either developments relating to Trust work or opportunities for Trust involvement around health issues

• Increase the level of knowledge & skills within the Trust through documenting key learning’s and supporting others to develop their professional abilities.

• Dissemination of knowledge, taking full responsibility for technical accuracy and reliability and being sensitive to the wider implications of that dissemination.

• Ensure that expertise is seen as a resource within and outside the Trust and form working partnerships with government departments, national agencies and key stakeholders internationally, nationally, regionally and across sectors.

• For full job details and person specification please refer to the Job Description

Qualifications

• Masters or Bachelors Degree in Pharmacy.

• Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

• Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy.

• Completed or studying for Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy.

• Desirable:

• Member of Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

• NMP qualification or working towards and eligible for training.

• Member of specialist pharmacist practice group e.g. UKCPA.

• Experience

Essential:

• Minimum 3 years hospital pharmacy experience involving clinical pharmacy services.

• Experience of dispensary working.

• Desirable:

• Previous experience of Frailty services.

• Bank Holiday and weekend working experience.

• Working as a specialist pharmacist in an MDT.

• Working in a busy hospital ward environment.

• Implementing change.

Additional Information

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

For more information, please see our People and OD Strategy 2026

Smoke Free Policy:

All of our hospitals operate a strict no smoking policy. Smoking cigarettes or tobacco products is not allowed on any of the grounds or in any of the buildings run by us. This applies to patients, staff, carers and visitors to Trust premises.

Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone we care for and, by making sure that our NHS services are smoke-free, we benefit the health of people who use our services as well as the health of the people who work for us.