Principal Pharmacist - Medicines Efficiency
Frimley, England, United Kingdom Contract Posted 6 days ago
Job Overview
We are seeking an experienced, enthusiastic and motivated clinical pharmacist to work with the Chief Pharmacist and Project Managament Office in the Principal Pharmacist -Medicines Efficiency role.
This newly created post as lead for the Medicines Efficiency Team will support the Trust Pharmacy department, clinicians and PMO team in delivering biosimilars switch and medicines efficiency programme, delivering cost-effective switches and ensuring best value in the use of high-cost medicines, particularly biologics and biosimilars. You will be expected to work across the Frimley Health Trust sites.
You will be expected to contribute to the strategic development of the department, both within the Trust and within the wider ICS.
Main duties of the job
The Frimley Health Pharmacy Department is a forward-thinking department with many innovative practices across the team. The department has an ambitious plan to deliver excellent and high quality pharmacy services to its patients and to develop the pharmacy team.
This role will offer significant rewards and seeks a driven, passionate individual with experience in engaging with various stakeholders, as well as a proven history of service development and delivering to agreed targets.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.
Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.
We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.
Frimley Health Trust Benefits on Vimeo
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
Special Requirements
Essential criteria
Essential criteria
Essential criteria
Essential criteria
Our new organisational strategy – FHFT 2030 – sets out our ambition to be the best place to receive care and the best place to work in the NHS. Underpinned by our Trust values – Committed to Excellence, Working Together, Facing the Future, and being a modern, compassionate, Healthcare Organisation – we are creating a culture where our people can thrive and patients always come first.
We continue to invest heavily in our services and facilities. This includes the development of a new hospital at Frimley Park, major expansion of diagnostics and inpatient capacity, and the continued transformation of services across our sites. We have already delivered a brand-new £100m state-of-the-art Heatherwood Hospital, a £49m Emergency Assessment Centre at Wexham Park, and a £10m upgrade to maternity services.
We are also committed to sustainability and the NHS Net Zero ambition. Our new hospital and estate developments are being designed to be environmentally responsible, energy efficient, and future-proofed, featuring on-site renewables energy and intelligent energy systems. Through our green plan, we are embedding sustainable practices across all areas of care and operations, ensuring we reduce our environmental impact while improving population health and wellbeing. Our staff are key to helps us deliver on our ambition and to ensure sustainability is a core component of care delivery and our operations.
Alongside estates’ investments, we are embedding a strong focus on digital innovation and quality improvement. Our electronic patient record (Epic), launched in 2024, is already enabling safer, more connected, and more effective care for patients, while giving staff the tools they need to do their best work. Our electronic patient record also supports safe and effective digitised care pathways, savings time and carbon, whilst delivering excellent quality of care.
Everything we do is guided by our values, shaping how we care for patients, support colleagues, and build a sustainable future for healthcare together.
Apply online now
We are seeking an experienced, enthusiastic and motivated clinical pharmacist to work with the Chief Pharmacist and Project Managament Office in the Principal Pharmacist -Medicines Efficiency role.
This newly created post as lead for the Medicines Efficiency Team will support the Trust Pharmacy department, clinicians and PMO team in delivering biosimilars switch and medicines efficiency programme, delivering cost-effective switches and ensuring best value in the use of high-cost medicines, particularly biologics and biosimilars. You will be expected to work across the Frimley Health Trust sites.
You will be expected to contribute to the strategic development of the department, both within the Trust and within the wider ICS.
Main duties of the job
- To support the Trust Pharmacy department, clinicians and PMO team in delivering biosimilars switch and medicines efficiency programme, delivering cost-effective switches and ensuring best value in the use of high-cost medicines, particularly biologics and biosimilars.
- Oversee the identification, implementation, and evaluation of medicines optimisation initiatives and efficiency schemes across the Trust, including tracking outcomes and reporting to stakeholders.
- To update and inform the Trust’s Medicines Value Group (MVG) to coordinate the strategic approach and tracking of savings delivery for the medicines efficiency programme.
- Work collaboratively with pharmacy, medical, nursing and project management office (PMO) colleagues to promote safe, effective, and value-based prescribing of high-cost drugs, supporting improved outcomes and reduced harm.
- Provide leadership and line management to the medicines efficiency team, ensuring delivery of agreed workstreams and the development of team members.
- Manage relevant financial and workforce resources within the Pharmacy department to support effective service delivery and ensure the achievement of cost improvement targets.
- Work with the Formulary Pharmacist and the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee particularly in relation to high-cost and specialist medicines.
- Ensure timely reporting to NHS England and NHS Frimley ICB on agreed cost-saving initiatives, including audits and progress updates.
The Frimley Health Pharmacy Department is a forward-thinking department with many innovative practices across the team. The department has an ambitious plan to deliver excellent and high quality pharmacy services to its patients and to develop the pharmacy team.
This role will offer significant rewards and seeks a driven, passionate individual with experience in engaging with various stakeholders, as well as a proven history of service development and delivering to agreed targets.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.
Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.
We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.
Frimley Health Trust Benefits on Vimeo
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
- Lead a programme of horizon scanning projects to identify biosimilar and medicines savings opportunities, including patent expiries and market entry.
- Support the development of Trust wide policies and pathways for the safe and effective introduction of biosimilars, working with the ICB and NHSE Medicines Optimisation Teams to align procedures and pathways related to medicines.
- Provide specialist advice on commissioning and reimbursement mechanisms (e.g. BlueTeq, homecare contracts), ensuring financial and operational readiness for new high-cost drugs.
- Produce detailed monthly forecasts of potential and realised savings from biologic switches and prepare variance analysis reports for review by senior leads.
- Oversee the completion of Quality Impact Assessments for proposed medicines value savings ensuring a wide range of complex considerations and factors are assessed to implement medicines savings effectively.
- Design and deliver detailed implementation plans for each biosimilar switch, including stakeholder mapping, projected benefits, communication strategies and patient switch schedules.
- Lead/facilitate divisional switch meetings, track project milestones, and escalate issues to Medicines Value Group or Chief Pharmacist as required.
- Analyse prescribing data at specialty level (e.g. Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, Dermatology) to inform the prioritisation of switches and monitor trends
Special Requirements
Essential criteria
- Able to work at weekends and to participate in Bank Holiday working
- Ability to be able to travel between sites
Essential criteria
- Registered with GPhC
- Postgraduate clinical diploma or equivalent
- Registered Independent Prescriber
- Evidence of Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
- Pharmacy degree (master’s level, 4 years)
- Member of Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- Formal leadership and management qualification
- Member of Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Essential criteria
- Significant post-qualification experience working as a pharmacist in a clinical environment
- Experience in producing horizon scans or commissioning plans for high-cost medicines.
- Able to provide specialised clinical pharmacy services within own area of expertise, including prescription prescribing, review, dispensing and supply, and to give highly specialised advice to clinicians and patients on the safe and effective use of medicines, in line with medicines legislation and risk management principles
- Proven medicines related risk management, incident investigation and audit
- Experience of training others
- Ability to recognise areas for development of current practice
- Management of staff including recruitment, appraisal
- Proven medicines related risk management, incident investigation and audit
- Experience with managing Individual Funding Requests
- Experience of leading guideline development and implementation
- Track record of large‐scale service improvement and cost‐saving initiatives
- Directorate pharmacist experience
- Management training
- Experience of delivering presentations at local, regional, national level
Essential criteria
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability and confidence to communicate with a wide range of stakeholders, from patient to hospital consultants
- Good interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
- Ability to work on own and as part of a team
- Ability to compile reports /cases where data is presented effectively based on evidence-based information
- Excellent organisational skills
- Ability to prioritise workload and work to deadlines
- Ability to work under pressure and cope with stressful situations
- Excellent IT skills
- Working experience of working with e-prescribing software
- Evidence of interest in research
- Knowledge of human resource policies and procedures
Our new organisational strategy – FHFT 2030 – sets out our ambition to be the best place to receive care and the best place to work in the NHS. Underpinned by our Trust values – Committed to Excellence, Working Together, Facing the Future, and being a modern, compassionate, Healthcare Organisation – we are creating a culture where our people can thrive and patients always come first.
We continue to invest heavily in our services and facilities. This includes the development of a new hospital at Frimley Park, major expansion of diagnostics and inpatient capacity, and the continued transformation of services across our sites. We have already delivered a brand-new £100m state-of-the-art Heatherwood Hospital, a £49m Emergency Assessment Centre at Wexham Park, and a £10m upgrade to maternity services.
We are also committed to sustainability and the NHS Net Zero ambition. Our new hospital and estate developments are being designed to be environmentally responsible, energy efficient, and future-proofed, featuring on-site renewables energy and intelligent energy systems. Through our green plan, we are embedding sustainable practices across all areas of care and operations, ensuring we reduce our environmental impact while improving population health and wellbeing. Our staff are key to helps us deliver on our ambition and to ensure sustainability is a core component of care delivery and our operations.
Alongside estates’ investments, we are embedding a strong focus on digital innovation and quality improvement. Our electronic patient record (Epic), launched in 2024, is already enabling safer, more connected, and more effective care for patients, while giving staff the tools they need to do their best work. Our electronic patient record also supports safe and effective digitised care pathways, savings time and carbon, whilst delivering excellent quality of care.
Everything we do is guided by our values, shaping how we care for patients, support colleagues, and build a sustainable future for healthcare together.
Apply online now
