Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) on developing the hospital pharmacy profession and the improvement of care for patients in Europe
In accordance with its mission, the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) aims to represent and develop the hospital pharmacy profession within Europe to ensure the continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting.
The goals of the association – which represents more than 21.000 hospital pharmacists in 35 European countries – are achieved through EAHP’s educational activities – such as the annual congress and the Academy Seminar events – sharing of best-practices via the Good Practice Initiatives and the publication innovative and practical research in the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy.
The desire to continue raising the standards of the hospital pharmacy profession has guided EAHP towards the adoption of the 44 European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy and the creation of a Common Training Framework (CTF) for hospital pharmacy specialisation.
The European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy express commonly agreed on objectives which every European health system should aim for in the delivery of hospital pharmacy services. They were adopted via a methodical consultation process involving EAHP’s member country associations as well as 34 patient and healthcare professional organisations.
Focusing on core competencies of the profession including but not limited to production and compounding, clinical pharmacy services as well as education and research, the European Statements were designed to become the key benchmark for measuring the extent to which hospital pharmacy is developing around Europe, and where precisely improvement efforts should be focused.
Implementation is driven by motivated and enthusiastic hospital pharmacists. The efforts of both the EAHP implementation team and national member associations in terms of awareness raising are currently measured by means of EAHP’s statement survey which provides a glance on how hospital pharmacies within EAHP’s 35-member country associations implement specific sections of the statements.
A more tailored review will be possible once EAHP’s new self-assessment tool is fully operational. The tool allows hospital pharmacists to assess the level of implementation within their hospital and provide them with an individualised action plan, that guides their progress in implementing individual statements. Through the tool and the resources available on the statement implementation website, EAHP hopes to drive implementation forward to ensure continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting play in Europe today.
Making further improvements
To further foster patients equal access to safe high-quality pharmaceutical care, EAHP has worked towards improving the mobility of its profession in Europe by seeking to put in place arrangements for specialities of pharmacy to move between countries. Enabled by the most recent revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive, EAHP has taken the initiative to enhance the labour mobility perspectives of hospital pharmacists on a European level, and to align educational standards throughout the EU by means of the establishment of a CTF for hospital pharmacy education.
Allowing qualified hospital pharmacists to move freely throughout Europe will not only increase the access to health information and pharmaceutical expertise in the European Union, but it will also provide benefit for patients. By setting a benchmark for all European countries to strive for, the CTF will also function as a strategic tool for realising the European Statements.
Free movement of persons – one of the EU’s four freedoms – has been specifically analysed by EAHP, since it currently seems to be one of the main challenges of the profession. In exploring the impact of a CTF on labour mobility, EAHP gathered information on the attitudes and perspective of hospital pharmacists by means of a survey. The findings showed that development of the profession, facilitation of exchange of expertise, standardisation in the quality of education and increase of mobility opportunities are benefits to be gained by creating a new tool for automatic recognition of specialisation across borders which would encourage 85% of the survey participants to make use of a CTF once it is established. A report summarising the findings and showcasing the journeys of hospital pharmacists that tried to move within the EU will be published by the end of 2017.
As the profession that strives to continuously maintain and improve the medication management and pharmaceutical care of patients to the highest standards in a hospital setting, EAHP also actively advocates for the use of the unique skills and knowledge that hospital pharmacists possess. In particular, the uptake of new medicines, such as biosimilars and the fast-paced developments in the field of eHealth and mHealth necessitated the recent adoption of position papers by the association on these topics.
Focusing on the safe, effective and efficient use of medicines and new technology, both papers underline the importance of hospital pharmacists’ involvement in eHealth/mHealth discussions and decisions concerning selection, procurement, logistics, information, education and collection of real-life experience for biosimilar medicines.
Stephanie Kohl
Policy Officer
European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP)
Tel: +32 (0)2 669 25 12
