NHS Scotland
Specialist Pharmacist - Polypharmacy
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Two exciting opportunities to improve medicines use and patient outcomes across Fife
NHS Fife is seeking two experienced and enthusiastic pharmacists to join the Pharmacy and Medicines Service as Specialist Pharmacists Polypharmacy, each on a 24-month fixed-term basis.
These roles offer an exciting opportunity to be part of NHS Fife’s Polypharmacy Invest to Save programme, delivering high-quality, person-centred polypharmacy reviews for people with complex health and care needs. You will work across community hospitals, care homes and transitions of care, helping people and healthcare professionals make informed decisions about medicines and ensuring treatment continues to provide meaningful benefit.
As a Specialist Pharmacist Polypharmacy, You Will
- Undertake comprehensive, person-centred polypharmacy reviews, considering clinical appropriateness, treatment burden, risks, benefits and what matters to the individual.
- Apply Realistic Medicine principles to support shared decision-making, optimise treatment and deprescribe medicines where appropriate.
- Identify and reduce avoidable medicines-related harm, supporting safer and more effective use of medicines.
- Work collaboratively with patients, carers and multidisciplinary teams across health and social care.
- Identify opportunities to improve outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation and ensure medicines provide value for patients and the wider health and care system.
- Support sustainable prescribing by reducing avoidable medicines use, waste and associated environmental impact.
- Contribute to the delivery, evaluation and ongoing development of the Polypharmacy Invest to Save programme, demonstrating improvements in patient outcomes, experience and use of NHS resources.
- Provide expert clinical pharmacy advice and support education and knowledge-sharing with the wider multidisciplinary workforce.
- Contribute to audit, data collection, quality improvement and service evaluation to demonstrate the impact and sustainability of the programme.
Make a Difference To What Matters To People
Polypharmacy is not simply about the number of medicines a person takes. It is about ensuring that every medicine has a clear purpose and that the overall treatment plan reflects the person’s priorities, circumstances and goals.
You will have the opportunity to spend time with people to understand what matters to them, identify medicines that may no longer provide sufficient benefit, and support shared decisions about starting, stopping or changing treatment. Your clinical expertise will help people achieve the best possible outcomes while reducing treatment burden and avoidable harm.
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Help deliver Realistic Medicine and Value Based Health and Care
These posts provide a unique opportunity to translate national principles into meaningful improvements in everyday clinical practice.
You will contribute to a model of care that focuses on outcomes rather than activity, supports shared decision-making and makes best use of NHS resources. By identifying and addressing inappropriate or low-value medicines use, the programme aims to improve patient outcomes and experience while releasing capacity and resources across the wider health and care system.
Work across the health and care system
You will work closely with pharmacists, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, care home teams, social care colleagues and other members of the multidisciplinary team.
The roles will provide an opportunity to work across organisational and professional boundaries, strengthening medicines optimisation at key points in a person’s journey and helping to improve continuity and safety across transitions of care.
Be part of an Invest to Save programme with lasting impact
These are more than two-year clinical posts. They offer the opportunity to shape and evaluate a new approach to polypharmacy, generate evidence of impact and help establish sustainable models of pharmacy-led medicines optimisation for the future.
If you are a clinically confident pharmacist with independent prescribing experience, a passion for improving patient care and an interest in Realistic Medicine, medicines optimisation and quality improvement, we would love to hear from you.
Join us and help NHS Fife ensure that every medicine has a purpose, every treatment reflects what matters to the person, and every pound spent delivers meaningful value.
Potential date: 02/11/2026.
Existing permanent employees must first discuss this opportunity with their substantive line manager. The secondment policy can be found here. If you do not have approval for a secondment from your current line manager, you will not be able to progress your application for a fixed term post. External applicants, with continuous NHS Service, must also have in place a secondment agreement, from their existing board to apply for this post.
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For informal enquiries, please contact Amina Slimani-Fersia, Head of Pharmacy Governance and Therapeutics (amina.slimanifersia@nhs.scot)
A requirement of this post is to become a member of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme Prior to appointment.
To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.
As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards will check your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK website.
It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsored BEFORE submitting your application form.
We offer flexible working and family-friendly policies and fully support disabled candidates, and candidates with long-term conditions or who are neurodivergent by making reasonable adjustments to our recruitment policy and practices.
Please note the salary is pro rata for part time hours.
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NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.
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