Consultant Pharmacist Mental Health role within HCJ (FOI)

​Request 681952103

Regarding the recent advertisement for a Consultant Pharmacist Mental Health within Jersey Health and Community Services;

comparing the person specification with a Consultant Pharmacist Role currently advertised within the NHS, the required qualifications seem to be quite different for this prestigious role.

'Qualification as a Pharmacist Prescriber' - this is essential in the NHS but only desirable in Jersey.

'Credentialed as a Consultant Pharmacist'- this is desirable but essential within 18 months of starting the role in the NHS but only desirable with no requirement in Jersey.

Please can you explain these differences. Will there be any essential requirement for the post holder to become a prescriber or a credentialed Consultant within any time scale?

How long was the previous Mental Health Consultant Pharmacist in post? Were they a prescriber and credentialed?

Do you have any other Consultant Pharmacists? How long have they been in post? Are they prescribers and credentialed?

Response

The request for an explanation of the different requirements of similarly titled posts in Health and Care Jersey (HCJ) versus those advertised in other organisations is outside of the remit of the Freedom of Information mechanism, which is designed to enable access to information held in recorded form by a Scheduled Public Authority, rather than to pose questions requiring comment, opinion or speculation. Records are not held to satisfy this part of the request. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

As noted in a Freedom of Information response of August 2023, there are two Consultant Pharmacist posts in HCJ; Mental Health, and Digital Services. As per the August 2023 response, these posts are not credentialed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, as the post approval process is specifically for NHS posts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland:

gov.je/government/freedomofinformation/pages/foi.aspx?ReportID=6660

Whilst there is currently no formal Consultant Pharmacist credentialing system specific to Jersey, post-holders are expected to follow, and work towards, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Advanced Practice Framework, working across the four pillars of practice:

• clinical practice
• leadership
• research
• education

The last Consultant Pharmacist: Mental Health started in post in February 2023, and was a qualified Independent Prescriber.

The Consultant Pharmacist: Digital Services has been in post for 6.5 years and is qualified as an Independent Prescriber.

Article Applied

Article 3        Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.​