Digital Medicines Lead Pharmacist
Job summary
This is an exciting opportunity to lead our Digital Pharmacy team to cover maternity leave. Working either F/T or P/T in a fixed term or secondment arrangement, as Digital Medicines Lead, you will provide strategic leadership for the Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) system across our newly formed organisation.
Following the successful rollout of EPMA to inpatient areas in 2022, we are looking to extend the system into additional areas of the Trust. You will play a key role in shaping this journey, working closely with our experienced EPMA team and clinical stakeholders to deliver innovation that enhances patient safety and experience.
As the Lead across Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare trust you'll
*Be the accountable person for EPMA delivery, optimisation and governance.
*Apply technical expertise & knowledge in the maintenance, development and extension of the ePMA system which meets the needs of a community and mental health trust.
*Identify risks and implement corrective actions to prevent recurrence and continuous improvement to support patient safety and enhance clinical workflows.
*Oversee training programmes for EPMA users to ensure safe and effective system use.
*Represent EPMA at digital transformation groups, and regional/national forums
*Work with clinical and digital stakeholders to develop the EPMA specification for inclusion in the EPR procurement.
*Work closely with other providers, commissioners, external partners & academic collaborators
Main duties of the job
We are seeking someone with an advanced level of clinical reasoning and judgement, who is able to interrogate data (incidents, omissions, overrides) and draw insights from this, and implement targeted improvements.
The successful applicant will employ excellent skills in both written and verbal communication; be able to bridge the gap between clinical and technical audiences, translating between the two and produce clear papers/policies. The expectation is that the patients' voice will be included in the design and decisions; a natural bent towards working like this would be very welcome.
Crucially you will be able to build strong relationships across clinical services, pharmacy, digital, suppliers, and the executive leadership.
About us
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.
Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.
We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.
Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence
Job description
Job responsibilities
Provide clinical medicines management experience and knowledge and use this to contribute to the design of the EPMA solution to ensure safety and quality within the system.
*Resolve problems which could be clinical or technical in nature.
*Review and analyse incidents related to medicines management within EPMA.
*Escalate significant risks to appropriate governance boards.
*Manage and keep the drug file up to date.
*Contribute to the IT and Equipment plan leading on this for the medicine's management team and the dispensary.
*Drive continuous improvement through data analytics, dashboards, and benchmarking.
*Chair EPMA governance groups and user groups.
*Work closely with clinicians, pharmacists, IT teams, and project managers to ensure alignment with organisational goals.
*Responsible for ensuring all pharmacy related SOPs, policies and governance related documents are in place for all digital systems
*Ensure the EPMA system adheres to all relevant national and local standards e.g., MHRA; NHS I/E, GPhC, RPS, Information Governance etc.
*Draft complex reports for stakeholders.
*Collaborate with the Trust's contracts team to ensure contractual arrangements deliver value for money.
*Attend contract review meetings with the supplier.
*Contribute to other digital projects across the organization, taking the lead on all aspects related to medicines management.
*Maintain and regularly update the clinical safety case and hazard log for the EPMA system to ensure ongoing compliance and patient safety.
*To advocate for, and lead the implementation of EPMA or electronic prescribing solutions across HIOWH
* Lead the implementation of HIOWH EPMA system to inpatient wards not currently using EPMA or using alternative EPMA systems
*Assess the suitability for the HIOWH EPMA system to be extended to outpatient or community services.
*Lead on the implementation of EPMA to outpatient services
*Ensure the necessary governance procedures are implemented to ensure safe and successful implementation
*Provide clinical services in the dispensary or on a ward as the service needs.
*The post holder will be responsible for their own professional actions and decisions and will be expected to consider national protocols, professional and trust guidelines and relevant evidence when making decisions.
*Must be competent and confident to make sound decisions and be able to support these when challenged with a logical rationale/evidence base seeking advice from more senior colleagues when required. Decisions can be regarding clinical, policy and procedure, staff, ethics, legislation, responsibility, accountability, codes of practice, technical, financial, workload, health and safety, service provision, clinical governance, complaints/conflict and strategic issues within their area of responsibility.
*The post holder will be expected to be able to work independently using their own initiative and as part of a pharmacy, clinical and corporate team(s).
*May not take annual leave without prior agreement of the manager.
*May authorise expenditure within agreed limits as set out in the Standing Financial Instructions and Scheme of Delegation.
*Line manager for Lead Pharmacists, Pharmacy technicians and associated teams including supporting the following functions:
-recruitment and induction
-clarifying roles/ responsibilities
-setting of objectives and allocation of work
-ensuring staff are empowered, motivated and competent
-providing regular feedback and supportive reviews regarding progress against objectives, consideration of training or development needs/ opportunities and well-being
-following relevant HR policy and departmental procedures
-being available to providing support and advice as required
-performing an annual appraisal
-end of employment processes including exit interviews
*To work closely with the Senior Pharmacy Team to ensure staff objectives across the service are clear and aligned to service needs and departmental priorities.
*To provide support and advice to colleagues regarding the management, supervision and support of staff and assist in the recruitment of other staff.
*To support the development of pharmacy and other staff through the provision of teaching sessions, training material and individualised support.
*Understand and agree as an employee that it is your personal responsibility to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements e.g. Health and Safety, Equality and Diversity, Confidentiality and Information Governance.
*You will be expected to be aware of the location and content of relevant HR policies and support others in the team in this regard.
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
Person Specification
Qualifications
- Registered Pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council
- Postgraduate clinical diploma in pharmacy to Master's Level
- Post-graduate management qualification, or equivalent experience
- Training in clinical safety management for health IT
- Project/Programme/Change certification (e.g., PRINCE2).
Experience
- Significant senior experience in EPMA/EPR implementation, optimisation, NHS setting or equivalent.
- Experience of managing a team
- Experience of working flexibly, under pressure and to tight deadlines
- Experience of chairing working groups and committees
- Experience in audit and project facilitation
- Experience of service planning/development
- Experience of budget management
- Experience of working across organisational boundaries
- Track record in clinical safety governance: maintaining safety cases & hazard logs, risk assessment, incident review, and implementing corrective/preventive actions.
- Experience designing and governing clinical decision support (dosing, interactions, duplication, renal/hepatic rules) and formulary management aligned to dm+d.
- Delivery of workflow redesign and change management (training/adoption, policy, SOPs) with measurable patient safety and quality improvements.
- Managing suppliers and contracts; contributing to procurement, business cases, and benefits realisation.
- Experience using SystemC
- Experience in Mental Health
- Experience with analytics reporting (Power BI) and data extraction for audit KPIs.
Additional Criteria
- Knowledge of NHS Information systems, data models and the current NHS performance management structure
- Advanced level of clinical reasoning and judgement
- Ability to interrogate data (incidents, omissions, overrides), draw insights, and implement targeted improvements.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate between clinical and technical audiences and produce clear papers/policies.
- Builds strong relationships across clinical services, pharmacy, digital, suppliers, and executive leadership. Include patients voice in design and decisions.
- Acts with integrity, inclusivity, and respect; role models a patient safety first culture.
- Champions diversity, equity, and staff wellbeing; fosters psychologically safe teams.
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Address
St.Mary's Community Health Campus (Portsmouth)
Milton Road
Portsmouth
Hampshire
PO3 6AD
Employer's website
https://hiowhealthcare.nhs.uk/