Job summary
- Main area
- Medication Safety Officer and Governance Lead
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (plus weekends, bank holidays and on-call.)
- Job ref
- 220-WHT-3333
- Employer
- Whittington Health NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Whittington Health NHS trust
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £64,156 - £71,148 Inclusive of Inner HCAs per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 03/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Medication Safety Officer and Governance Lead
Band 8a
Covid-19 Vaccination
Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defence against COVID-19.
We encourage and support staff to get COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.
Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of Whittington Health NHS Trust.
For our current apprenticeship vacancies, please go to https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship and use Keyword ‘Whittington’
By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a pharmacist with drive and enthusiasm to play a pivotal role in Medicines Safety and Clinical Governance across Whittington Trust.
Are you up for the challenge in building excellence?
Are you passionate about working with a wide range of healthcare processionals to promote a positive safety culture? If so, then this is the perfect opportunity for you.
We are looking for an experienced Pharmacist with extensive clinical pharmacy knowledge, excellent communication skills and a strive for excellence.
The post holder will be expected to forge strong professional relationships across the trust and be responsible for the leading on patient safety and clinical governance initiatives relating to medicines management including Controlled Drugs. They will be pivotal in the ongoing development and delivery of the trust medication safety programme.
The post holder will need to have the ability to work with a wide range of multidisciplinary teams and be a key member of a number of groups and committees concerned with patient safety internally as well as externally.
We look forward to taking these next steps of this journey with you!
Apply today.
Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for further details
Main duties of the job
For more information relating to the main duties of the role, please refer to the Job Description included in this advert
Working for our organisation
Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For more information relating to the main duties and responsibilities of the role, please refer to the Job Description included in this advert
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria
- MPharm (or equivalent)
- Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council
- Further post graduate qualification Diploma/MSc in Pharmacy Practice or Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent
Desirable criteria
- Membership of the RPS and relevant professional clinical group (e.g. Meds Safety Network or UKCPA)
- Independent prescriber
- Leadership or Management qualification
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
- High-level clinical skills sufficient to engage in appropriate dialogue with senior clinicians around complex clinical cases.
- Good written and oral communication skills and able to communicate with patients and all grades of healthcare staff (verbally and in writing).
- Good negotiation skills and the ability to influence senior pharmacy and medical staff, the multidisciplinary team and management.
- Experience of supervising and training junior pharmacists and wider pharmacy team members
- Experience of providing education and training to pharmacy staff, nursing staff and doctors.
- Good interpersonal and negotiation skills.
- Good problem-solving & numeracy skills
- Ability to evaluate and to plan service developments
- Understand, articulate and apply the principles of change management to the healthcare setting
Desirable criteria
- Demonstrates abilities to drive quality improvement and digital innovation to support medicines safety
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrates a whole-system patient-focused approach to work.
- Good understanding of the role of medication safety & clinical governance within the acute setting and how this supports patient care.
- Good understanding of the role of medication safety & clinical governance within the community setting and how this supports patient care.
- Good working knowledge of clinical governance and medicines management issues.
- Relevant clinical experience from working in an acute hospital setting.
- Appropriate knowledge of the legal requirements when dealing with and processing Controlled Drugs
- Involvement in the writing of clinical guidelines and medicines policies.
- Experience as a line manager.
- Experience of appraising staff and giving feedback.
- Experience in education and training and acting as a clinical supervisor.
- Experience of conducting medicines management audits and producing action plans and reports, based on data.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of coordinating drug recalls/MHRA alerts/CAS and clinical alerts.
- Knowledge of national bodies responsible for supporting clinical governance and medicine safety in the acute hospital setting.
- Experience of conducting medication error investigations and producing action plans linked to service improvement.
- Experience of contributing to, or leading quality improvement projects.
- An understanding of what integrated care is and how this applies to Pharmacy.
- Knowledge of the wider NCL healthcare system and priorities.
- An understanding of how digital tools / EPR functionality can improve clinical practice in the inpatient setting.
- Working within the PSIRF and CQC Framework.
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria
- Reliable, Self-motivated.
- Able to set realistic goals and outcomes and use these to motivate themselves and their team.
- Able to work under pressure whilst maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
- Able to work on own initiative or as part of a multidisciplinary team.
- Demonstrates initiative, and motivation & enthusiasm for the post.
- Commitment to continuing personal development.
- Knowledge and understanding of equality and diversity issues and how personally can make a positive difference to this agenda.
Desirable criteria
- Ability to articulate their own leadership style
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Kush Bhargava
- Job title
- Deputy Chief Pharmacist & Clinical Services Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
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