Deputy Regional Quality Assurance Specialist

The Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) National Quality Assurance (QA) Service supports the principles of medicines optimisation by the development and championing of best practice and by ensuring continuous improvement through the implementation of quality risk management systems in NHS medicines manufacturing & preparation and NHS supply chain management.
The Deputy Regional Quality Assurance Pharmacist will work as part of a regional and national team in delivering successful patient outcomes by ensuring the choice of medicines in the NHS is evidenced based, safe, of high quality, value for money, and readily available by working closely with the pharmaceutical Industry and NHS manufacturing units. Medicines use will be made as safe as possible by incorporating effective systems of quality risk management into their procurement, manufacturing, preparation and administration.
The post holder will line manage and co-ordinate the QA Hub team to support the SPS QA Hub lead in delivering the SPSQA national work plan and the QA service to the NW Trusts against the SPS service specification.
The job will involve a considerable amount of travelling, principally within the North West Region but also to other areas of England. The peripatetic role will include auditing, development of collaborative initiatives, training/CPD support and attendance at relevant meetings and network groups, To support NHS Organisations and Networks through the following:

• To support the delivery of the national medicines optimisation agenda by providing specialist quality assurance advice at a national, regional and local level.


• Safeguarding patients through the quality assurance of medicines procured, prepared or manufactured by the NHS in the North West.


• To contribute to the patient safety agenda through the provision of quality assurance expertise and support to the procurement, preparation and manufacture of medicines and medicines provider services to the NHS.


• Development and implementation of best practice standards for manufacturing medicines in the NHS through audit, training, mentoring and advice.


• To support organisations in the development and implementation of quality risk management systems to underpin the principles of medicines optimisation and ensure consistently effective outcomes for patients.


• To promote innovation and transformation in the NHS by supporting the development, implementation and safe use of new medicines (e.g. ATMP, clinical trials, biological medicines) and technologies through working with regulators, academia and industry.


• Contribute to the development, implementation and delivery of the NHSE, SPS and NHS Pharmaceutical QA Committee work-plans., Developing, contributing to, implementing and mentoring compliance of quality standards for the safe use of medicines


• To work and liaise with regulators and expert advisory groups (MHRA, BP, EAHP, RPS, GPhC).


• To develop and implement national and regional quality assurance standards.


• Support local and regional service development and innovation, showcasing best practice.


• To respond to relevant UK and EU medicines consultations on behalf of the North West Chief Pharmacists and networks.


• To monitor compliance against standards/implement against audit/developing standards.


• Supporting others in developing standards.


• To represent Regional Chief Pharmacists and Regional Quality Assurance Service, at the National Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Committee as necessary.

Providing quality assurance advice to improve the safety of all medicines preparation, manufacture and distribution (licensed and unlicensed activity) in NHS organisations.

• Provide expert advice to North West organisations carrying out sterile and non-sterile traditional batch manufacture, aseptic preparation, radiopharmacy, extemporaneous preparation, repackaging & over-labelling, wholesaler dealing, clinical trials and quality control laboratory services.


• Supporting the effective implementation and embedding of best practice quality standards through audit, training and mentoring.


• Provide regulatory oversight to NHS unlicensed aseptic preparation through delivery of the EL audit programme. These audits are undertaken at a frequency of no less than once every 18 months. Identifying and assessing patient safety risks and highlighting deficiencies through audit, oversight and monitoring of corrective actions, informing senior management and escalation to NHSE where appropriate.


• Supporting NHS organisations in obtaining and retaining MHRA licences.


• To provide quality input to the design and validation of clean rooms, facilities and equipment for manufacturing medicines.


• Provision of expertise in formulation, R&D, sterility assurance and pharmaceutical microbiology to support safe preparation, dispensing and administration of medicines.


• Improving patient outcomes through the provision of pharmacovigilance advice in relation to medicine quality e.g. following adverse incidents/drug recalls.


• Supporting investigations and reviews, when requested, into patient incidents, where medicines have caused harm by providing expert technical advice and assistance.


• Supporting Trusts in meeting regulatory requirements with regard to safe and secure storage and handling of medicines e.g. CQC, Home Office, GPhC, MHRA.


• To provide expert opinion and advice relating to national guidance and regulatory aspects of medicines management to customers. This includes Good Distribution Practice (GDP), safe and secure handling of medicines controlled drugs, temperature controlled storage, COSHH issues, Disposal of waste.

The post holder will undertake audits, carry out risk assessments and help to develop audit tools relating to unlicensed and licensed manufacturing/preparative services units in the Region. The post holder will attend audit inspections by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of licensed NHS manufacturing units and liaise between the MHRA and the unit concerned, with regard to any safety or quality issues identified. The post holder will undertake audit inspections of unlicensed NHS aseptic preparation units as directed under NHSE Assurance of Aseptic Preparation of Medicines Guidance with regard to compliance with good manufacturing practice. The post holder is required to undertake audits of medicines manufacturing and preparation facilities of suppliers of medicines and medical devices to the NHS. Audits are undertaken to assess compliance of manufacturers with standards of good manufacturing practice.
Duties include:

• Undertake audits of unlicensed NHS medicines manufacturing facilities that aseptically prepared sterile medicines for patients as required NHSE's Assurance of Aseptic Preparation of Medicines Guidance. (March 2023)


• Provide promptly, a full audit report in writing via the IQAAPs system, to the Chief Pharmacist responsible for each such aseptic preparation unit and provide summary audit reports similarly to the Trust Chief Executive and when required escalate to NHSE via the pathways documented in the NHSE Guidance.


• Provide audit reports that give a clear risk assessment of the service provided and provide details of any required remedial action (within given timescales) to improve aspects of the service with regard to patient safety. Should such an audit inspection uncover critical failings or lapses in good manufacturing practice that constitute (in the opinion of the post holder) a critical risk to patient safety, the post holder has the authority to seek the immediate closure of the facility until such time as satisfactory remedial action can be taken. The post holder has the authority to seek such a closure by escalation pathways involving recourse to the Trust Chief Pharmacist, Trust Chief Executive and NHSE as necessary.


• Attend MHRA Inspectorate audits of licensed NHS manufacturers and liaise with the MHRA and the unit concerned, with regard to any safety or quality issues identified.


• Undertake audits of commercial manufacturers of licensed and unlicensed medicines and medical devices, wishing to supply to the NHS or in response to product defect complaints with existing suppliers.


• Undertake audits of third parties providing service to the NHS, which have a direct impact on patient care (e.g. contract analytical laboratories, homecare companies).


• Undertake audits of other aspects of hospital pharmacy services on request such as extemporaneous dispensing of medicines, use and procurement of unlicensed medicines and good laboratory practice in Quality Control laboratories.


• Undertake the development of new and existing pharmaceutical audit tools for local, regional and national use.


• Use and contribute to various audit databases applicable to this work.

MRHA Drug and Device Alerts

• To liaise with the Defective Medicines Report Centre of the MRHA where problems have been reported and SPS advice is required to notify the system with and without the instigation of a national drug/device recall.


• To facilitate "upwards" reporting to NHS England of serious or potentially serious or significant medicines- related incidents or errors arising in pharmacy services and to ensure that relevant information and "learning points" from these and relevant incidents elsewhere in the trust or NHS are widely and promptly disseminated and that lesson are learned appropriate action taken to minimise the risk of recurrence.


• To support the Regional QA Specialists in disseminating information and actions required in response to Drug Alerts and Recalls..

Networking and Committees

• To support and encourage networking and good practice by participating in regional and national networks as appropriate.


• To participate in and support as necessary, the activities of the NHS QA Committee Procurement Sub- Group meetings.


• To represent the Regional Quality Assurance Pharmacists as required on Regional and national committees (such as the NHS QA Committee) as necessary.

Providing oversight of medical gas systems in NHS Organisations

• Input to standard setting for best practice and input to the NHS Health Technical Memorandum or equivalent, aligned to the SPS Medical Gas Committee.


• Provide advice to support the commissioning and re-qualification of medical gas systems.


• Provide expert advice and support for Chief Pharmacists with regard to their duties in delivering the medical gas agenda.

Freedom to Act
The post holder will be responsible for managing their own workload, working alone and be solely responsible and accountable for decisions made. The job will involve a considerable amount of travelling, principally within the North West but also to other areas within England.
Other Duties

• To undertake other reasonable duties as requested by the Regional Quality Assurance Pharmacists, SPS QA Hub Lead or the Director of SPS.


• To undertake any other duties that may be required appropriate to the postholder's grade, experience and competence.


• Participate in personal individual performance review and continuing education programmes in order to maintain knowledge and improve standards of service.


• Attend all mandatory and Trust required training on a periodical basis as specified by the relevant Legislation / policy.


• To, at all times, practice in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, whether registered with the RSPGB or not.


• To take personal responsibility for promoting a safe environment and safe patient care by identifying areas of risk and following the Incident, Serious Incidents and Near Misses reporting policy and procedure.

Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months' of their 18^th birthday.
The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.
The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.
Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £18+£5 (standard disclosure) or £38+£5 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment.
From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults' policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.
Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.
All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.
As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first paypoint of the relevant band.

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was created on 1 October 2019 following the merger of two adult acute Trusts, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The merger provides an opportunity to reconfigure services in a way that provides the best healthcare services to the city and improves the quality of care and health outcomes that patients experience.
The Trust runs Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool University Dental Hospital and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
It serves a core population of around 630,000 people across Merseyside as well as providing a range of highly specialist services to a catchment area of more than two million people in the North West region and beyond.