EAHP represents over 30,000 hospital pharmacists across 37 member countries. EAHP represents and develops the hospital pharmacy profession within Europe in order to ensure the continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting. This is achieved through science, research, education, practice, as well as sharing best-practice and responsibility with other healthcare professional
The EAHP Board, elected for three-year terms, oversees the association’s activities. Comprising directors responsible for core functions, it meets regularly to implement strategic goals. Supported by EAHP staff, the Board controls finances, coordinates congress organization, and ensures compliance with statutes and codes of conduct.
The EAHP staff supports the Board in executing EAHP’s mission. The Staff assists in financial management, events organisations, policy activities and all EAHP projects. The EAHP staff works closely with EAHP’s members and ensures the effective communication all relevant stakeholders.
The first member countries were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands in 1972. EAHP has now 36 EAHP members and 2 Associate Members. EAHP is open to countries members of the Council of Europe and since 2022 to organisations representing the interests of hospital pharmacists from outside the Council of Europe (Associate Membership)
EAHP’s structure is also composed by different standing committes: EAHP Scientific Committee, EAHP Education Executive Committee and the EAHP CTF Steering Committee.
At EAHP, we are committed to transparency in our governance, ethical standards, and funding practices. This section provides open access to our foundational documents, including the EAHP Statutes, Code of Conduct, and Funding Sources. By sharing these resources, we aim to uphold accountability and foster trust with our members, partners, and the public.
Keep up with all EAHP’s events and webinars. Contact the team at info@eahp.eu should you have any questions about upcoming events or activities.
Here you can find all upcoming events organised by EAHP and by all its members and associate members. Do not hesitate to contact the events team at events@eahp.eu should you have any questions about the organisation of these events.
Hospital pharmacists conduct a critical role in the care of patients in hospitals. Learn more about what they do here and in all the pages under Hospital Pharmacy practice and Policy.
Self-Assessment
SILCC
Closed SIGs
EAHP brings together experts from many areas of hospital pharmacy practice providing and highlighting good local sustainable practices as that can be up-scaled and shared with other countries. The EAHP Working Group on Sustainability has the aim of reducing the environmental burden of the hospital pharmacy services.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), and its 36 member country platforms are creating a Common Training Framework for the hospital pharmacy education in Europe. The goal of this project is to allow the free movement of hospital pharmacists within the European Union.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) have collaboratively developed the Oath to Society. The Oath to Society is all encompassing and acts as a contract for excellence in providing compassionate patient care, working as part of the healthcare team and advancing the pharmacy profession, and showcasing how clinical and hospital pharmacists work every day
A day created to highlight the importance and to celebrate the work done by hospital pharmacies. This day celebrates all hospital pharmacy teams.
Catch up with EAHP’s press releases
Find all EAHP relevant publication like the EAHP Surveys, annual reports and the history books.
The European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (EJHP) is the only official journal of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and is committed to advancing the science, practice and profession of hospital pharmacy. As the premier communication platform for hospital pharmacists worldwide, EJHP is a major source for continuing education as well as updates on advances in the practice and standard of pharmaceutical care for patients.
When EAHP and Hospital pharmacists appear in the news.
EAHP publishes a monthly EU monitor with updates about the latest EAHP initiatives and information relevant for the hospital pharmacy profession.
Sponsor Channel
The Sponsor Channel is designed to maximise visibility and engagement, allowing sponsors to connect with the hospital pharmacy community and partners in a dynamic and interactive environment. From product demonstrations to networking sessions, the Sponsor Channel offers a range of opportunities for sponsors to showcase their offerings and generate leads in the new EAHP Website.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Katja Heikkinen, Charlotta Vinterflod
AC’s mission is to secure that the right product and product information is available as well as in case of shortages assist with alternative products and information. Correct information is fundamental to achieve an effective and secure supply chain of medical products. This reduces time spent on ordering, delivery time is shortened and finding information is more efficient.
The hospital pharmacy in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden (VGR) established an assortment council (AC) that assists buyers of medical products within the region. By creating a defined assortment the goal was to direct healthcare professionals to order procured, recommended and cost-efficient medicines and enable structured availability monitoring.
A counsel of pharmacists was formed to administer a defined assortment consisting of 95% of the most commonly used medical products. The availability is monitored daily and every disruption of supply is handled in a structured way. Alternative marketed or unlicensed medical products are identified and information about these are communicated through VGR’s ordering system or by newsletters. If an equivalent product is available, it will be delivered automatically without the need for placing a new order. The AC also collaborates with the region’s medical specialists and drug and therapeutics committee (DTC) when searching for alternatives.
Defined assortment has been reduced from 6000 products to approximately 3000. In 2018 in addition to the daily updated availability information, 14,300 orders out of 410,000 were automatically replaced with an equivalent product and 41 newsletters about shortages were published. Nurses get more time for patient care when shortages information is readily available, and replacement of equivalent products can be delivered automatically
By implementing this way of working in other hospital regions or on a national level, caregivers would be able to free up resources and focus on patient care and at the same time be able to find quality assured information about shortages and alternatives in an efficient manner.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Helle Pasgaard Rommelhoff, Lise Grove, Dorthe Bartels, Trine Ann Behnk, Lars Ole Madsen
To share learning from a pilot of procuring pharmaceuticals jointly across borders in three European countries as well as post-learning on planning and execution elements in order to have a successful joint procurement.
Three European countries decided to implement a joint procurement pilot in order to seek solutions for some of the supply issues in the three markets. This was a consequence of being a small volume market with potentially limited attractivity for suppliers of older products. An initial evaluation of synergies and discrepancies among the involved countries supported the understanding of how to jointly procure medicines for the hospital sector.
The visualised model of a product lifecycle was applied to understand where a pilot of joint procurement would support the supply issues of the older products. This led to a shared understanding between the countries on where the supply issues may occur and potential solutions. An evaluation of building the joint procurement process, which took approximately 2 years, is now available as a best practice with “Do’s and Don’ts” for other countries with joint procurement interest. Criteria in the tenders announced were either price alone or in combination with. One of the tenders included a mandatory bid for all 3 markets, the rest of the tenders were mandatory for 2 of the markets with optional submission for the 3rd market. This was an outcome of hearings with suppliers. The feedback from the hearings was modifying the tender materials into a new proposal for suppliers. A political framework was signed between the countries to have a shared fundament to build on.
The final outcome of a joint procurement was evaluated. Evaluation of the submission and preparation part showed that the majority of joint tenders had an efficient competition on price with a representative amount of suppliers bidding. It also shown that it was vital to have collaboration and to listen to stakeholders in order to have a robust insight on what was possible for all involved parties. The thorough preparations supported the process and the final outcome. There was dual engagement between the stakeholders and transparency on the wish from countries to overcome barriers and conduct joint procurement to support supply issues.
Efficient and timely planning is crucial. Collaborations between the involved stakeholders are important. Mutual understanding of the interests and strategy is helpful in building a shared view on the problems and potential solutions. It is seen as essential, when planning joint procurement, to include logistic thinking already in the early tender planning phase.
Introductory Statements and Governance
Eleni Rinaki, Marinos Petrongonas, Maria Fragiadaki, Leonidas Tzimis
MSs are a frequent problem in our hospital. In a study carried out in 2018, we investigated reported shortages during one year and found that 56% of cases of unsatisfied wards’ requests were due to failure of pharmacy’s procedures to restore availability. In 70% of these cases, time to re-stock was more than 4 days and strong involvement of HPs in following up and taking measures was required. The purpose of this tool is to bring together all relevant information of shortages, aiming to improve hospital pharmacy’s response as well as following-up MSs for further investigation or research.
A new software module in Hospital Information System (HIS) for monitoring medicines’ shortages (MSs) was conceived by hospital pharmacists (HPs), and it was designed, developed and integrated to the ICT system. This module helps HPs easily track which medicines were totally or partially substituted due to insufficient quantities and gives additional information (such as residual quantity of a medicine on prescription date, on inspection date, pending orders, known shortage) needed for managing MSs. In this tool, MSs and relevant information, such as causes, measures to re-stock and shortage’s impact, can be entered, centrally managed and regularly reported.
Implementation of the module in ICT system was made at zero cost by the ICT service provider, following technical specifications designed by HPs. The final product was multi-checked by HPs during development and all technical problems have been resolved accordingly.
• Quick intervention of HPs to restore medicines availability is feasible. • We can now have precise and easier follow up, with less human resources required. • MSs are collected, registered and easily utilised to draw conclusions. • HPs’ interventions to deal with MSs are easier to evaluate
ICT tools’ development is very important in facilitating hospital pharmacy’s practice, especially when human recourses are restricted. These software modules can be easily incorporated in every HIS. Pharmacists are competent and should have a central role in designing such tools. We are planning to evaluate our new MSs management procedure; in the long run, incorporating in this tool a risk assessment algorithm will be an asset.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Christine Dinsen-Andersen, Hanne Fischer, Anita Gorm Pedersen, Dagmar Bertelsen, Marianne Hald Clemmensen
Before the NTF was established, each hospital pharmacy made their own assessments and solutions to CMS. This led to a lack of coordination in the national supply and knowledge sharing. As the number of CMS increased, a need for a coordinated national initiative became evident. The aim of the NTF is to secure better communication to healthcare professionals and to establish clearly defined rolls and responsibility in the supply chain from wholesaler to hospital pharmacy. Patient safety aspects should be included in all relevant steps of the process.
A National Task Force (NTF) for critical medicines shortages (CMS) have been established with the main objective to provide therapeutic and patient safety assessment of CMS on a national level. In addition to this the NTF takes considerations regarding the supply chain into account in the assessments.
To secure national engagement, members of the task force were appointed according to a consensus between the hospital pharmacies in Denmark. The NTF includes participants from 3 hospital pharmacies, the national wholesaler for hospital pharmacies and a patient safety organization. Based on challenges of geographical dispersion and different local practices, an effort was put into: • securing a systematic work flow, for the group; • creating a digital platform with access for members from different organizations; • agreeing on when a medicine shortage is critical.
• Early intervention – resulting in opportune solutions. • Agility in allocation of remaining stock between hospital pharmacies. • Optimisation of choice of alternative treatment during period of shortage. • Secure supply of alternative drugs on national level. • Initiate agreement between physicians on choice of alternative on a national level. • Attention to patient safety challenges – preventing adverse events.
Joined forces have resulted in coordinated and optimised solutions to managing CMS, enabling the hospital pharmacies to secure patient safety. Hence the NTF shall continue its work. Having a national unit as NTF provides the basis for coordinated initiatives and for corporation with health and medicines authorities and market authorization holders.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
EDURNE FERNANDEZ DE GAMARRA MARTINEZ, NÚRIA PI SALA, RAQUEL AGUILAR SALMERON, ANTONI BROTO SUMALLA, MILAGROS GARCÍA-PELÁEZ, LIDIA MARTINEZ SÁNCHEZ, SANTIAGO NOGUÉ XARAU
Antidotes are drugs used in emergency situations. Some of them often present availability issues due to shortages, high cost, complex acquisition (foreign drugs’ importation) or short validity periods. This tool was implemented in July 2015 to improve the availability of antidotes.
A virtual network was designed in order to have a tool that allows pharmacy departments to locate antidotes: to know in which centres they are stocked, how much there is of each drug and when it would expire. It also facilitates communication between centres and loan movements in case they are required.
A web-based application was developed (www.redantidotos.org). It includes a public site with general information, an updated antidotes guide and a section where non-urgent toxicological consultations could be submitted. In addition, there is a private site (accessed through username and password) where each pharmacy department might introduce the stock they have of 18 selected antidotes (anti-digoxin antibodies, anti-vipera serum, botulism antitoxin, dantrolene, deferoxamine, defibrotide, dimercaprol, calcium disodium edetate, ethanol, fomepizole, glucagon, glucarpidase, hydroxocobalamin, idarucizumab, pralidoxime, physostigmine, silibinin and uridine triacetate). Each Hospital has two key users: a ‘farmatox’ (pharmacy department) and an ‘urgetox’ (emergency department). Their participation has been crucial for the success of the project.
Currently there are 63 Spanish hospitals included in the Antidotes Network. It has been used 49 times to locate an antidote that was needed and to request a loan between centres. Thirteen antidotes were involved in these movements. The most requested drugs have been anti-vipera serum (10/49), glucagon (6/49), anti-digoxin antibodies (5/49), botulism antitoxin (5/49) and fomepizol (5/49). Additionally, recommendations were published about stock availability and use of antidotes according to hospital complexity (Emergencias 2016;28:45-54).
The network was first implemented in Catalonia and now the project is being extended to other Spanish regions (currently it has been implemented in three out of 17 regions). We aim to continue improving communication between professionals involved in intoxication management, sharing knowledge and improving the care we offer to our patients.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Kim Florian Green, Torsten Hoppe-Tichy
Drug shortages are an increasing problem for hospitals in Germany. The management is time consuming and might endanger safety of drug therapy. Therefore, it is essential to take precautions to deal with upcoming shortages in advance.
Development of an algorithm to create an essential drug list in consideration of logistic and clinical aspects.
The first step was classification of the hospital formulary. We used 4 types for classification (oral medication, parenteral medication, medicinal products, and dietetics). Following a priorisation for parenteral and oral drugs cause of the fact we discovered in an internal benchmark that durgshortages with parenteral drugs lead to a larger workload. After that we assessed drug consumption for each drug by year, quarter and month and conducted an extending selective inventory control (ABC-XYZ-Analysis).
Next step was to create a step-by-step decision-tree considering local clinical pathways and logistics define essential drugs. The algorithm displays typical procurement processes and infrastructure in German hospitals pharmacies and the common search for alternative drug therapies.
The combination of the algorithm and the ABC-XYZ-Analysis lead to an individual list of essential drugs and allows to define logistic measures for each of them.
The list allows us to define an adequate stock for upcoming drugshortages. Internal benchmarking for process robustness. External validation of our algorithm is necessary.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Hanne Fischer, Bente Dam, Bitten Abildtrup, Helle Pasgaard Rommelhoff, Lars Munck
Challenges with drug supply is a global as well as a national problem. A decline in interest among the suppliers to submit tenders in our country, has been detected. This is more profound compared to other European countries due to a small market and a strict interpretation of EU public procurement rules.
The aim of the study was to evaluate whether three selected contract types motivated suppliers to submit tenders, submit with a lower price and whether they affected national backorders.
In 2015 and 2016, the national purchasing authority for all drugs used in all the public hospitals, tested three new contract types on 18 drugs: a) Purchase obligation for the national purchasing authority b) Limit on reimbursement obligation for replacement drug and c) Two national suppliers of one drug. Contract type a and b aimed to reduce the suppliers’ economic risk and c was primarily tested to secure national drug supply.
Suppliers, who had the opportunity to submit tenders for the new contract types, were included in the study. For the 2015-tenders’ 7 of 8 semi structured interviews were carried out and for the 2016-tenders, 10 electronic questionnaires were provided (50 % respond rate). In total 2 parallel importers and 15 generic suppliers participated.
The respondents reported that contract type a motivates to submit tenders and submit with a lower price. It might reduce national backorders due to a predictable sale.
The generic respondents reported that contract type b reduces their economic risk, which motivates to submit tenders and due to that might reduce national backorders.
The respondents reported that contract type c did not have considerable effect on the national supply, since the forecast and amount of orders from both suppliers is fixed months in advance.
In order to address the challenges with drug supply, new types of contracts, which reduce the suppliers’ economic risk, will be further implemented in future national tenders.
