GP Clinical Lead - ePrescribing

Job Title: GP Clinical Lead - ePrescribing

Reporting to: Deputy Medical Director, Irish College of GPs

Base: 15 Deputy Hogan Place, Dublin 2 D02 DK23/ Hybrid Working

Contract type: Specified Purpose Contract - 12 months with renewal possible depending on funding

Working hours: 2 days per week

Closing date: Wednesday 25th November

About the College

The Irish College of GPs is the professional body for general practice in Ireland. Please visit our website for more information: Irish College of GPs

About the National ePrescribing Project

This project has the potential to transform healthcare by improving the efficiency and coordination of care, supporting people to manage their own medications and changing the way people engage with services and professionals. The National ePrescribing Project has been established by the HSE as a patient safety initiative and part of Digital for Care’s core digital infrastructure for the health service. Its central deliverable is the National Electronic Prescription Service (NEPS), which will hold electronic prescriptions and dispensations, and will connect to GP and community pharmacy systems, and the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) in the first phase. The project will provide digital access for patients so they can interact with their medicines information via the HSE Health App. Subsequent phases will connect other prescribing and dispensing settings e.g. secondary care and remaining prescribing sites.

Job Purpose

The GP Clinical Lead ePrescribing provides GP leadership, clinical guidance and subject matter expertise to the National ePrescribing Project, together with practical knowledge of prescribing workflows and the day-to-day operation of general practice. The role ensures that the service is safe, workable and acceptable for general practice. Initially the focus will be on defining and agreeing GP requirements, contributing to procurement and design, engaging with GP software vendors and the GP community, and preparing general practice for implementation.

The person in this role will work closely with colleagues in the GP Clinical Lead and MD Directorate team, College and with the HSE National ePrescribing Project team. S/he will also establish strong collaborative relationships with stakeholder colleagues including in the HSE. In addition to national strategic aims, the GP Clinical Lead National ePrescribing Project will provide best practice education to GP members and practice teams through a diversity of formats aligned to the Irish College of GPs Statement of Strategy 2027 - 2032.

Key Result Areas

In collaboration with key stakeholders

1. Provide GP clinical leadership and strategic input to the National ePrescribing Project, representing the College and the interests of GPs and patients.

2. Establish and maintain highly functioning collaborative relationships with key stakeholders across the health sector.

3. Lead the GP clinical input to the requirements for NEPS and for the GP software changes needed to integrate with it, including clinical workflows, data standards and safe prescribing functions. Requirements should be clear, outcome-focused and testable.

4. Contribute GP clinical expertise to procurement, evaluation, design, testing and acceptance of the national service, within HSE governance and confidentiality rules.

5. Collaborate on benefits realisation for the project with a focus on identifying measurable metrics from general practice

6. Oversee the development and delivery of integrated care education and training relevant to general practice including Quick Reference Guide/Evidence Update for GPs.

7. Support the legislative and regulatory changes needed for fully electronic prescribing by giving GP clinical input to the Department of Health and the HSE, and by developing College positions and submissions. Keep the College informed of EU requirements, including the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

8. Identify key strategic, project, research and education areas for immediate and medium term projects and address same through appropriate governance, and report regularly to the Deputy Medical Director.

9. Guide and support local implementation of best practice and provide a sustained focus on quality improvement, resource utilisation and quality assurance.

10. Engage with the College Research Hub for General Practice on strategic projects relevant to integrated care, with particular focus on ePrescribing.

11. Engage with the GPIT group and HSE programmes on the relationship between ePrescribing and other significant national digital health projects, including the National Shared Care Record, the HSE Health App, the One Health Record, the Individual Health Identifier and the National Medicinal Product Catalogue.

Key Deliverables

1. Act as the project’s practising prescriber voice, advising on the complexities and nuances of real prescribing (including repeat and phased prescriptions, controlled drugs, amendment and cancellation, shared care, out-of-hours and home visits), so that design decisions reflect how prescribing works in practice.

2. Complete and maintain the GP clinical and workflow requirements for integrating GP software with NePS, so that they are clear, outcome-focused, testable and agreed with the HSE.

3. Establish and represent the College’s position on what NEPS must deliver for general practice, including how it relates to other national digital health systems.

4. Provide GP clinical input to procurement, evaluation and design, through to contract award and sign-off of the detailed design.

5. Ensure the service is workable for GPs by assessing its impact on workflow and workload and testing the design against real practice scenarios, so that it reduces transcribing and does not add burden.

6. Contribute to clinical safety assurance and clinical governance, including the shifts in responsibility between prescribers, pharmacists, patients and the system that ePrescribing creates (for example ownership of the medication list, cancellation and repeat authorisation).

7. Provide clinical input to the legislative and regulatory changes needed for fully electronic prescribing.

8. Prepare benefits realisation metrics and collaborate with peers in academia, trainees and others to participate in relevant research projects.

9. Develop and deliver communications and education for GPs and practice teams, including a GP advisory group and engagement with GP software vendors.

10. Prepare general practice for first implementation, including practice readiness, champion practices, evaluation of benefits, and a handover and business case for the next phase of the post.

Person Specification

The ideal candidate will have the following knowledge, skills, expertise and competencies:

Qualifications & Experience

• Be a medically qualified health professional, holding the MICGP qualification, and be a current member of the College in good standing.

• Be registered with the Irish Medical Council of Ireland on the Specialist Division for General Practice.

• Be enrolled on and in compliance with the College Professional Competence Scheme.

• Have 5 years postgraduate medical experience running own practice and own GMS lists in Ireland.

• Concurrently hold a part-time clinical appointment equivalent to a minimum of four sessions of clinical general practice per week.

Behavioural Competencies

• Have demonstrated leadership skills and promoted change in practice either locally or in the wider health network.

• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships and advocate for the patient.

• Competent negotiator with excellent communication skills e.g. to make the case for resourced, safe integrated care in practice.

• Ability to design and deliver GP education through a range of formats and media.

• Proven ability to evaluate and audit projects.

• Demonstrable understanding of common issues and challenges in clinical informatics.

The Irish College of GPs is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to ensuring that all job applicants and employees receive equal treatment regardless of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race, membership of the Traveller community, or any other protected characteristic under Irish equality legislation. We are committed to making reasonable accommodations to enable applicants to participate in the job application and interview process. Please email hr@icgp.ieto confidently discuss any accommodations required.