The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), in combination with the Panhellenic Association of Hospital Pharmacists (PEFNI), has supported 40 pharmacists from 14 countries in the recently held 7th Annual Academy Seminar, to assist hospital pharmacists in learning from European and Global best practice.

These 40 pharmacists were mainly heads of pharmacies or deputies from the new EU-Countries and EU candidate countries. The event also gave practical guidance to attendees about how to implement change in their hospital pharmacy.

The weekend of themed lectures and workshops took place in Thessaloniki, Greece between April 20 and 22 2012. The overall topic of the 2012 weekend was: “What do we need to know about building or reconstructing a hospital pharmacy?”

Topics covered included: production engineering; quality and risk management; how to set up new facilities; hospital pharmacy logistics; use of automatic picking systems; and latest developments in medicine barcode technology. Participants were guided and informed about these subjects by prominent individuals in hospital pharmacy including: Technology Consultant Winfried Scheirer; Barbara Wimmer, a Head of Drugs Information and Clinical Pharmacy in an Austrian hospital; HolgerKnoth, Head of Pharmacy at Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital in Dresden; and, Michael Beranek, a consultant in Good Manufacturing Practice. All participants received certificates of education accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) on completion of the course.

Elfriede Dolinar, EAHP’s vice president and the moderator of the Seminar, said, “Thessaloniki was the 7th Academy Seminar that EAHP has organised with the purpose of improving hospital pharmacy practice right across Europe. I am delighted that each event appears to receive more and more positive feedback from participants. It is very gratifying to me that EAHP provides this kind of development opportunity and I look forward to hearing how the attendees have applied what they learned to improve services and systems in their respective countries. Finally, I want to thank to our sponsors Amgen, Bayer Healthcare and Cato Software Solutions whose support helped to make the event possible.”