Skip to main content
Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Frailty
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8c
Contract
Permanent: Full time on site post
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Mon-Fri - no on call, no weekends)
Job ref
409-S7694883
Employer
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Southport Hospital
Town
Southport
Salary
£79,504 - £91,609 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
01/05/2026 23:59
Interview date
12/05/2026

Employer heading

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust logo

Consultant Pharmacist – Frailty

NHS AfC: Band 8c

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

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

Main duties of the job

  • 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

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. 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.

Alongside advanced clinical practice, the role carries significant strategic influence. The postholder contributes to the design and implementation of frailty-focused pharmaceutical services, shaping how medicines optimisation is delivered across both hospital sites and at the acute–community interface. 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

Essential criteria
  • We are kind
  • We are open
  • We are inclusive

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • 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
Desirable criteria
  • Accredited Tutor for post-graduate clinical diploma

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria
  • 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

Essential criteria
  • 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

Essential criteria
  • 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

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Nursing TimesApprenticeships logoDisability confident leaderArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardNavajo - Merseyside and CheshireCare quality commission - OutstandingDying to Work CharterStep into healthHappy to Talk Flexible WorkingNHS Rainbow Badge - BronzeDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - GoldPeople Promise

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Dr Ella Sykes
Job title
Consultant Geriatrician
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01704547471
Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies