As a hospital pharmacist you are responsible for the dispensing and procurement of medicines and supplies used within the hospital. Your work settings can also include health centres, care facilities, clinics, nursing homes and GP surgeries.

Key responsibilities

• Providing clinical expertise and being an educational resource for colleagues in relation to medicines eg doses, side-effects, alternatives etc whilst helping to address the public health and social needs of individual patients
• Liaising with and proactively developing relationships with a multidisciplinary team (including colleagues, NHS professionals and private organisations) and acting as the main point of contact for medicines
• Participate in ward rounds to administer patient drug histories and liaise with patient families, community pharmacists and GPs
• Manage the process of medicines reconciliation on admittance or following discharge from hospital and liaise with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients have the medicines that they need
• Managing, auditing and reviewing prescription and repeat prescription policies to improve the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of prescribing
• Reduce wasteful polypharmacy and seek to reduce inappropriate and wasteful prescribing of medicines
• Proactively seek to reduce medicine-related hospital admissions and readmissions by identifying medicine-related issues and supporting patients to get the best outcomes from their medicines.
• Handling patients and health care professionals’ prescription queries and providing remote support where needed
• Research and identify patients that require medication reviews including patient’s clinical condition, blood monitoring and care arrangements
• Perform regular patient reviews to identify and address any medicines-related issues and ensure patients get the best outcome from medicines prescribed
• Make appropriate recommendations to GPs and other healthcare professionals for patients’ ongoing treatment and for the management of referrals
• Ensuring repeat reauthorisation processes are adhered to for high-risk medicines

To qualify as a hospital pharmacist, you need to:

• successfully complete a Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) accredited by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• complete one-year's pre-registration training in a hospital pharmacy, successfully demonstrating competency in several areas and a portfolio providing further evidence of your learning
• pass a GPhC registration assessment.

You'll then be able to apply for registration with GPhC, which is necessary to practise as a pharmacist in England, Wales and Scotland. Pharmacists in Northern Ireland must register with the Pharmaceutical Society NI

What to expect

• Your place of work will be in the dispensary and on wards, with regular patient contact on a daily basis. You may also work in laboratories and clean (sterile) rooms.
• Pre-registration students may also be offered accommodation.