Specialist Pharmacist: Clinical Commissioning & Cancer High Cost Drugs

This is a unique opportunity to be part of the OUH clinical commissioning and medicines effectiveness team. This post is ideal for any pharmacists who are looking to take the next step in their career, or to diversify their experience and improve their knowledge of high cost medicines.

1. To be responsible for identifying and facilitating implementation of any Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) schemes relating to high cost cancer drug usage at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and sharing any schemes with other local providers to ensure consistency across the healthcare economy.

2. To implement and manage the processes for approval, appropriate use and audit of high cost cancer drugs associated with specialised services.

3. To ensure that those treatments supported by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisals are implemented according to the published recommendations within the Trust.

4. To provide professional and independent advice to area team pharmacists and other commissioners to ensure that any relevant financial and implementation issues for NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance are identified and articulated at an early stage.

5. To support the business planning and contracting process for high cost and specialist medicines and ensure national commissioning policies and protocols for those high cost treatments that sit outside NICE recommendations are implemented according to agreed criteria., 1. Lead on NICE and NHS England commissioning policy implementation, including:

• Development of effective systems for identifying and reviewing impending NICE guidance on High Cost Cancer Drugs (HCCDs)


• Identify financial impact of such recommendations with commissioners, including population sizes and costs per capita


• Implement and develop a process to identify and where appropriate authorise acute Trust use of high cost and out of tariff medicines, including NICE, for individual patients meeting agreed criteria


• Ensure robust policies and procedures are in place to effectively manage Patient Access Schemes (PAS) and related claims/income


2. Act as first point of contact for high cost cancer drug commissioning queries within the Trust, seeking advice from the Area Team specialist pharmacist and Clinical Commissioning Pharmacist network when required.

3. Provide professional support and training on commissioning and interface issues to the medicines management teams in the Trust.

4. Manage the Trust processes for electronic approval of high cost cancer drugs through the Trust Electronic Prescribing System or standalone web-based systems as agreed between the commissioners and the Trust.

5. Provide support and manage the process for implementation of early access to medicines schemes at the OUH, as well as other cancer compassionate use schemes.

6. Provide a quarterly report of work undertaken for presentation to the Trust and the commissioner

Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

6. To provide an effective interface between commissioners and the Trust regarding the use of high cost cancer medicines.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trustis one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research.

The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community.We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence.These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via the OUH YouTube channel.