Job summary
- Main area
- Pharmacy
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 430-CC27148A-A
- Employer
- Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Pharmacy (Dept)
- Town
- Milton Keynes
- Salary
- £53,755 - £60,504 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/04/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 05/05/2025
Employer heading

Medication Safety Officer
Band 8a
Job overview
Medication Safety Officer
Department: Pharmacy
Band 8a - £53,755 - £60,504 per annum
Hours: 37.5 per week, all MKUH roles will be considered for flexible working
Are you a Pharmacist passionate about helping people get the best from their medicines? Do you love helping people to self-care and look after themselves? Do you have the experience of running high quality, patient focused pharmacy services? If so, we need you!
Milton Keynes University Hospital Pharmacy has had significant investment over the last year in a fully refurbished Pharmacy department and a state of the art Aseptic Unit. In addition we have added a new outpatient dispensary right in the heart of our main entrance and OPD.
We have recently undertaken a change in the manner in which safety incidence are managed, using the PSIRF model. This focuses on learning from errors and we are looking for a clinical pharmacist with experience at band 7 or 8a level in hospital pharmacy or medication safety experience to join the Medicines Use Team.
Interview date: w/c 05.05.2025
Main duties of the job
You will bring a passion for health and wellbeing with a desire to support both patients and staff of the hospital to manage their health and improve from incidence. You will have an eye for service development, system wide learning and governance processes. You will need strong clinical skills and a good knowledge of hospital pharmacy practice to be able to liaise with prescribers and nurses to optimise the use of medicines and reduce the risk of medication safety incidence to ensure the best possible patient outcomes.
In return, you will be supported by the wider Pharmacy team and you will have the opportunity to develop your own skills and undertake your own professional development.
This is an opportunity to set up a service from scratch to offer the highest quality of care.
If you would like to discuss the role further, please do get in touch.
Working for our organisation
Professional, scientific colleagues feel their roles positively impact patients and service users (NHS Staff Survey 2023).
"We care We communicate We collaborate We contribute"
You can expect a warm welcome at Milton Keynes University Hospital, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At MKUH we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:
- Free on-site parking
- Free tea and coffee
- Great flexible working opportunities
- Discounted gym membership
- Lease car scheme
- Generous annual leave and pension scheme
- On site nursery (chargeable)
- Extensive staff health and well-being programme
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the University of Buckingham, is a University Teaching Hospital; we conduct research and teaching on site to improve the care of our patients. The hospital is undergoing significant investment, and we are proud to be rated good by the CQC. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- To act as the Medication Safety Officer (MSO) and be responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of medicines safety initiatives across the organisation in line with relevant guidance.
- To be responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a programme to promote learning from medication incidents within pharmacy and across the organisation.
- Ensuring comprehensive reporting on medication incidents to the relevant committee meetings and be responsible for driving actions to improve patient safety across the organisation.
- To lead on the governance of Controlled Drugs working with the Clinical Director of Pharmacy and the Controlled Drug Accountable Officer.
- To support the Medicine Use and Quality Manager to develop, deliver and evaluate the service they are responsible for in accordance with relevant standards and guidance.
- To facilitate the continuing professional development of all direct reports. To support the Medicine Use and Quality Manager to develop and deliver the medicines governance agenda including the preparation and maintenance of pharmacy-wide policies and procedures relating to the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines.
- To support patient centred medicines optimisation as an advanced pharmacy practitioner; and where service need require, to practice as a non-medical prescriber within an agreed scope of practic
Please refer to the Job Description for further details.
We believe success lies in the diversity of our employees and are committed to promoting equality, encouraging diversity and embracing inclusion. We welcome applications from everyone interested in working for us.
MKUH is committed to equal opportunities and improving the working lives of our staff and as such we offer a range of flexible working practices.
We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.
MKUH uses identification scanning technology to confirm the authenticity of documents; all prospective employees of MKUH will have their original documents verified using this technology.
By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that information from your application will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system. 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 aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.
Upon commencing employment with the Trust, all employees (except Medical & Dental Staff on national terms and conditions) are subject to a probationary period lasting a period of six months with an option to extend for a further six months to a total of 12 months.
Person specification
Qualifications and knowledge
Essential criteria
- B.Sc. / B.Pharm. / M.Pharm
- Registered with GPhC
- Post-graduate degree / Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy (Level 8) or equivalent experience
- Evidence of on-going CPD (in line with GPhC requirements)
- Evidence of a good understanding of medicines value and commissioning pathways and arrangements.
Desirable criteria
- Independent prescribing qualification
- Member of RPS
- Formal teaching or mentoring training
Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrates a passion for Medication Safety
- Significant post registration experience in a hospital
- Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide patient care
- Experience of audit work and research
- Evidence of supporting multidisciplinary teams through change in clinical setting
- Experience of service development or change management
- An awareness of current national standards, guidelines and delivery issues relevant to patient and medication safety
- Experience of supervising, developing and appraising staff as well as giving feedback
Desirable criteria
- Experience of writing evaluations or reviews of medicines and critically appraising evidence
- Experience of managing drug expenditure and understanding of budgetary mechanism
- Awareness of tools and techniques to support horizon scanning
- Experience of business case synthesis, financial planning and reporting
Skills
Essential criteria
- IT, Presentation skills and report writing
- Meets targets and identifies a vision for the delivery of pharmacy and medicine services to patients
- Good inter-personal skills, with the ability to liaise and influence senior managers and consultants
- Meets expected levels of practice as identified by others and identifies new areas of practice
- Understands local and national priorities in care and has the ability to reconcile these with local realities
- Demonstrable ability to manage time, people and resources to deliver outcomes
- Integrates research evidence and audit results into practice; documented experience of own research & audit
- Identifies and manages risk
- Demonstrates awareness of and commitment to governance and medicines safety agendas
- Demonstrates clinical knowledge, clinical reasoning and judgement; manages difficult and ambiguous problems
- Identifies own training needs, actively seeks training opportunities and maintains a portfolio of practice
- Works autonomously and can delegate authority appropriately
- Evaluates the quality of own work and can evaluate service quality
- An ability to prioritise a complex workload and work accurately under pressure
Personal and people development
Essential criteria
- Experience as a trainer
- Experience of supervising, developing and appraising staff as well as giving feedback
Communication
Essential criteria
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to influence others
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
- Evidence of team working
- Evidence of effective and timely project delivery
Specific requirements
Essential criteria
- Able to perform the duties of the post with reasonable aids and adaptations
- Flexible, polite and courteous
- Dedicated professional attitude
- Able to take the initiative
- Common sense
- Ability and willingness to take responsibility for own actions and lead, when required, including when on call
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
- Sanil Patel
- Job title
- Associate Director of Pharmacy
- Email address
- [email protected]
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