EAHP represents over 29,000 hospital pharmacists across 36 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 professionals.
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 of Germany 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.
Production and Compounding
Ana Marín-Romero , Inés Monge-Escartín , Esther Carcelero-San Martín , Gisela Riu-Viladoms , Rubén González-García, Jaume Planas-López , Dolores Merino-Calderón , Rodolfo Juncos-Pereira , Carolina Lesta-Domene , Carmen López-Cabezas, Dolors Soy
Cytostatics are hazardous drugs that must be prepared under safe and sterile conditions. In some life-threatening situations, there is an urgent need to initiate chemotherapy immediately. However, not all hospitals have experienced personnel in safe-handling cytotoxic drugs for 24 hours and 7 days per week.
The objective is to create a consensual protocol to be used when immediate start of chemotherapy is required, and preparation must be done out of working hours of specialized pharmacy staff. A secondary objective is to confirm that non-experienced staff can prepare cytostatics safely and to guarantee their quality by following this protocol.
The oncohematology pharmacy team created a visual guide aimed to pharmacy personnel who do not routinely work with intravenous mixture preparations. This guide includes instructions about parenteral cytotoxic drug preparation for chemotherapy regimens that should be immediately initiated.
Urgent regimens were agreed with clinicians. They are: (i) fixed-dose intrapericardial cisplatin, (ii) intravenous carboplatin and etoposide, (iii) intravenous cisplatin and etoposide, (iv) intravenous cyclophoshamide and (v) fixed-dose intravenous daunorubicin. For schemes with different possible doses, fixed banding doses were agreed with clinicians.
A visual guide with images of all the material and preparation steps (including labelling, packaging and protection measures), for each scheme, was developed and attached to a prescription form to be completed by the physician and associated with a material kit that contained personal protective equipment, expendable material, cytostatic vials and serum bags.
The guide was distributed to pharmacy personnel external to preparation area, accompanied by a training session. Selected trained workers were supervised while preparing the mentioned cytostatic drugs in a simulated-base patient scenario.
All the cytostatic drugs were prepared correctly reaching a maximum preparation time of 45 minutes since physician’s prescription. The personnel involved maintained all the specified protection measures and reported feeling confident while cytostatic manipulation.
The guide proved to be useful to cover a possible urgent chemotherapy treatment outside the stipulated work schedule.
Re-training in safe-handling of cytotoxic drugs should be ongoing with regular updates to ensure a proper follow-up of this guide. This work methodology could be extrapolated to other pharmacy areas with similar needs.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Carlos Aparicio Carreño, Arantxa Gándara Ande, Beatriz Fernández González, Andrea Forneas Sangil, Belén Rodríguez de Castro, Rubén Pampín Sánchez, Cristina Martínez-Múgica Barbosa, Paloma NIeves Terroba Alonso
To improve safety during preparation and administration of IAD.
A new computerized system was established to improve quality control and traceability in preparation and administration of intravenous antineoplastic drug (IAD).
The software currently in use was updated, checking densities of IAD, weights of diluents and consumables. Protocols in pharmacology were adapted and maximum permissible error rates during elaboration were established. The Aseptics Pharmacy Department was equipped with a barcode label printer (BLP), a barcode scanner (BS), a precision scale and an All In One computer for the biological safety cabinet (BSC). The Haematology and Oncology Day Treatment Unit (DTU) was equipped with a BLP (for hospital bracelets) and portable computers with BS.
Regarding elaboration, a qualitative control was performed in the BSC by scanning data matrix or barcodes, recording batches and expiration dates, both of the diluent and antineoplastic agents. A quantitative gravimetric test was also performed using weight measurement of the diluent and devices before and after adding the drug. When the mixture was correctly prepared a label was printed with an identifying barcode.
Administration of the right bag to the right patient was also ensured by scanning barcodes in DTU: A hospital bracelet with a barcode was printed to identify each patient at their arrival to DTU. Prior to administration, double scan confirmation was made, checking patient´s bracelet and treatment (label), by using BS, ensuring that each patient received the drug, at the right dose, on time and by the correct route of administration.
All intravenous cancer therapies have been administered with double scan confirmation in DTU since the new system was established (November 2019).
This new way of processing IAD has been completely installed, but not all the antineoplastic treatments have been prepared with quality control.
The whole process has also left a complete computer record of the staff, task performed, time, duration and potential incidents.
We will gradually implement quality control while processing all intravenous antineoplastic treatments.
