Mr David Hutchings
David Hutchings completed his pharmacy degree at Cardiff University, followed by his pre-registration training at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. Upon qualifying as a pharmacist, looking for a new challenge, he joined the resident pharmacist programme at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust. During that time, he rotated through a breadth of specialities and provided on-call services for the Trust’s four hospital sites, whilst completing the Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy with Cardiff University.
Following this, he remained in the OUH as a Medicines Information pharmacist, progressing to become the Lead of the service the following year. Within this role, David developed managerial and leadership experience, progressing the service in the changing NHS. David proactively supported the education and training by tutoring pharmacists and technicians as well as providing educational sessions across the trust. David undertook a secondment as the OUH formulary pharmacist developing his experience of drugs and therapeutic committees and evidence-based medicine.
For the last three years, David has been the Lead Pharmacist for Clinical Commissioning and High-Cost Medicines at the OUH. This strategic role acts as an important link between commissioners and the Trust delivering a shared medicines optimisation agenda, forecasting, budgeting high-cost medicine spend and implementing cost-saving initiatives. This role also required David to provide leadership to the Trust outsourced homecare services during a challenging time, acting as a link between clinical teams and outsourced providers to minimise risk and prioritise patient care. David undertook the independent prescribing course specialising in inflammatory bowel disease.
Reason for applying for the scheme
David applied for the CPhO Clinical Fellowship as it was a distinctive opportunity to develop his leadership skills to a higher level using the structure and experiences he will gain. Throughout his career to date, he has been keen to push himself out of his comfort zone to learn and provide better care for patients.
David has experience of working with internal and external stakeholders to implement guidance from national bodies, such as NICE. Going into the fellowship, he is excited to take this a step further to learn how leaders work together to implement national policies and guidelines on a larger scale for the benefit of patients and the health economy.
As an aspiring leader within the NHS, he hopes to use this valuable opportunity to learn from proven leaders in key national organisations to continue to develop his own leadership style. David would also like to use his existing experience and background of commissioning on a local level and clinical knowledge to support others.
