Consultant Pharmacist – Frailty

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Job overview

The Consultant Pharmacist is the expert in frailty care, providing a vital link between advanced clinical practice and service development. The postholder will lead the design and delivery of innovative pharmaceutical care models to optimise medicines use and improve outcomes for frail patients, ensuring full compliance with medicines legislation and governance.

This senior role provides expert pharmaceutical leadership across the frailty pathway, including acute frailty services and wards, and patients transitioning to Hospital @ Home and virtual ward models. A core focus will be the management of polypharmacy , leading complex medication reviews, deprescribing and optimisation of medicines, and delivering holistic, person-centred pharmaceutical care aligned to patient goals.

The Consultant Pharmacist will lead, undertake, supervise and publish research within frailty pharmacy practice, contributing to the evidence base for service transformation. The role also includes strategic leadership, education and training across multidisciplinary teams, supporting workforce development and embedding best practice in frailty medicine.

The post is structured as approximately 60% clinical practice and 40% strategic leadership, research and teaching. The postholder will work across Southport and Whiston Hospitals, providing system-wide leadership and supporting consistent, high-quality pharmaceutical care, with the role primarily based at Southport Hospital.

Interview date: 12th May 2026

• To provide a specialist clinical pharmacy service within frailty care, as an NMP and optimising patient outcomes and improving patient experience, working across established frailty pathways and organisational boundaries.
• Face to face care with patients in ED and ward based
• To contribute to improved health outcomes for patients through a holistic approach to frailty care, ensuring the safe, effective and appropriate use of medicines through the delivery of medicines-related aspects of patient care.
• To support the development, competence and capability of pharmacy staff and frailty MDT colleagues through education, supervision, mentorship and professional leadership.
• To accept and manage case referrals for medicines optimisation within frailty care.
• To lead and deliver education and training in frailty care for pharmacy staff and other healthcare professionals across the health economy.
• To lead, undertake, supervise and publish research within frailty care, contributing to the evidence base and service development.
• To provide professional leadership and role modelling in frailty pharmacy practice locally, regionally and nationally.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This role operates at consultant level within a complex, dual-site hospital environment, providing senior pharmaceutical leadership for frailty services across Southport and Whiston Hospitals. The postholder works across multiple frailty pathways, spanning acute admission avoidance, Same Day Emergency Care, inpatient frailty wards, and step-down models including Hospital @ Home and virtual wards, supporting continuity of medicines optimisation across transitions of care.

The role has a broad clinical reach, with direct responsibility for managing medicines-related risk in frail older people with multiple co-morbidities and high levels of polypharmacy. Clinical activity is undertaken with a high degree of autonomy and accountability, often involving complex decision-making around deprescribing, treatment prioritisation, capacity, consent and end-of-life considerations.

The role influences multidisciplinary practice, supports governance and quality improvement, and ensures alignment with national and local priorities for frailty and medicines safety.

The postholder also works within an academic and educational context, leading and supervising research activity, service evaluation and innovation within frailty pharmacy practice. A key dimension of the role is the development of professional capability across pharmacy and the wider multidisciplinary workforce through teaching, mentorship and expert advisory input.

The role is delivered across a multi-site, multi-professional setting, requiring advanced leadership, negotiation and influencing skills to deliver consistent, high-quality pharmaceutical care for frail patients within a rapidly evolving NHS.

Person specification

Values

• We are kind
• We are open
• We are inclusive

Qualifications

• Vocational Master’s degree in Pharmacy or equivalent
• Pharmacist registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Membership of The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) accredited at Advanced level 2* or Fellowship of RPS faculty or equivalent in line with Department of Health 2005 Guidance for the Development of Consultant Pharmacist Posts
• Completion of, and accreditation by the RPSGB of the mandatory credentialing process
• Post-graduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy
• Accredited Independent non-medical prescriber
• Meets or exceeds Department of Health Consultant Pharmacist Framework competencies

• Accredited Tutor for post-graduate clinical diploma

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience of managing a team
• Appropriate and current clinical experience in Clinical Pharmacy relating to the care of older people
• Line management experience
• Proven experience of working at a strategic level with senior clinicians and managers and experience of working in an integrated directorate team
• Proven experience of working at a strategic level across the wider health community
• Proven budget management or monitoring ability and demonstrable success in achieving savings
• Provision of drug usage and expenditure reports and use of financial reports to influence business cases and clinical practice
• Recognition as an expert nationally through publications / presentations or officer in a national group
• Previous experience teaching/training/mentoring
• Proven medicines related policy development and implementation
• Broad clinical or directorate pharmacy provision in a number of different clinical areas
• Proven experience of managing and developing a service within limited resources
• Formal teaching / training/ mentoring training
• Proven facilitative leadership skills
• Understanding of NHS finances

Skills

• Ability to express written information concisely and accurately
• Able to motivate self and others
• Ability to work alone and as part of a team in a challenging environment
• Completer/finisher
• Able to work in a multi-disciplinary setting
• Able to prioritise and delegate
• Ability to achieve demanding tasks and objectives against deadlines
• Able to take difficult decisions and manage the consequences
• Ability to express written information concisely and accurately
• Able to motivate self and others
• Ability to work alone and as part of a team in a challenging environment

Other

• To be able to travel across sites
• Influential and able to work across professional boundaries
• Flexibility
• Manage complex and competing issues staying calm under pressure
• Lead through empowerment
• Able to cope with and diffuse stressful situations
• Inspire others
• Able to command respect of multi-disciplinary teams
• Able to evaluate and benchmark quality care
• Tenacious with good attention to detail
• Ability to manage own on-going personal and professional development
• Track record of delivering high standards of care
• Patient centred approach to care
• Demonstrate personal & professional pride in pharmacy and the NHS
• Resilient – able to deal effectively with stressful working environment without affecting performance

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [email protected]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab)

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Create a UKVI account
• Link their current passport
• Access their eVisa straightaway to check all details. Incorrect information should be reported as soon as possible using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/report-error-evisa
• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here.

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.