The 44 European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy cover the full range of services provided from hospital pharmacies across Europe. However, not all hospital pharmacies provide all the services covered by the Statements. This does mean that some Statements have greater importance than others for some hospital pharmacies.

The same is true for Stakeholders, some Statements will appear to have greater relevance than others. Stakeholders are encouraged to examine all the Statements for relevance to them. However, what is provided below are links to either sections of the Statements or the individual Statements where there is believed to be greater relevance. The choices have been driven through comments received from the various Stakeholders.

In terms of identifying the Statements that are most relevant to the insurers and commissioners who purchase care from hospitals, whatever their political or professional background, a good starting point would be to check the patient Stakeholder pages as what you will find here is what patients said they wanted from a hospital pharmacy along with what healthcare professionals believed was needed, doctors and nurses.

For patients to get optimal outcomes  from the treatment they receive, Insurers and Commissioners should check that hospitals have in place standards of practice for their hospital pharmacy and if they do not have their own hospital pharmacist then at least the advice of a hospital pharmacist.

Insurers and Commissioners might also want to know that there is external quality review of a hospital’s medicines use processes. Also, hospitals should have a learning culture in respect of reporting both adverse drug reactions and medication errors and the use of evidence based approaches to minimise those risks.

Most care a patient receives is outside of the hospital environment, so it is important that clinical information is shared in a seamless way to maximise the outcome for the patient.

Finally, given the increasing concern over antimicrobial resistance Insurers and Commissioners of hospital services should consider specifying the role they expect of pharmacists in helping delivery of antimicrobial stewardship. Within hospitals this is best achieved through a well-functioning Drug & Therapeutics Committee  and a formulary that has representation from medical specialists in the field and hospital pharmacists.