A robust set of hospital pharmacy practice standards for Europe has been agreed at an international Summit in Brussels. These standards should be met across European health systems to ensure safe, effective and optimal use of medicines in collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams. The standards, comprising 44 statements of practice, were agreed at the European Hospital Pharmacy Summit which concluded on Thursday 15th May, and was attended by more than 100 persons.

The statements were subject to open Delphi consultation with national hospital pharmacy associations, European patient groups, doctors and nursing organisations. The organisations then gave their final joint approval to each statement individually by a weighted voting method at the Summit event.

The European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy include: All hospitals should have access to a hospital pharmacist who has overall responsibility for the safe, effective and optimal use of medicines; Hospital pharmacists should be involved in all patient care settings to prospectively influence collaborative, multidisciplinary therapeutic decision-making; All prescriptions should be reviewed and validated as soon as possible by a hospital pharmacist; Hospital pharmacists should play a full part in decision making including advising, implementing and monitoring medication changes in full partnership with patients, carers and other health care professionals;  Hospital pharmacists should have access to the patients’ health record.  Their clinical interventions should be documented in the patients’ health record and analysed to inform quality improvement interventions; Clinical pharmacy services should continuously evolve to optimise patients’ outcomes.

Dr Roberto Frontini, President of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) said: “Through the new European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy, patients, hospital pharmacists and our sister healthcare professionals have set out a clear vision for what hospital pharmacy should be achieving in every European country. The task now turns immediately to implementation. EAHP will roll out a series of tools and initiatives to support the achievement of the statements, but a major onus now falls on health systems to prepare the way for improvement as well. The positive support from patient organisations and other healthcare professionals assures us that the statements are a shared aspiration and provide a route towards continuously improving patient care within hospitals in every European country.”

The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) is an association of national organisations across 34 countries representing hospital pharmacists at European and international levels.