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, 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.
Problems caused by medicines shortages are serious, threaten patient care in hospitals and require urgent action. Medicines are not simple items of commerce, they are an essential component of patient care and in the hospital sector they must be administered to the patient in a timely manner. Managing medicines shortages and ensuring continuity of supply can also cause the diversion of significant amounts of the time and attention of a hospital pharmacist from other tasks important in the provision of high quality, safe and efficacious care. Furthermore, the medicines shortage problem can undermine efforts to reduce costs in health systems as often, in the case of shortage, a more costly alternative must be used – or worse, a less effective alternative.
For over a decade, EAHP has been actively raising awareness about the challenges associated with medicine shortages and their impact on patient care in hospitals. Through persistent advocacy, this issue has gained increasing recognition at the European level. Despite ongoing efforts by hospital pharmacists to mitigate the problem, medicine shortages have continued to escalate across Europe. In 2023, EAHP conducted its 6th Shortages Survey to assess the scale of the issue. The findings indicated that, as in 2019, 95% of hospital pharmacists identified medicine shortages as a serious concern. Comparatively, 86% of other healthcare professionals, 84% of physicians, and 68% of nurses also recognised shortages as a significant issue within their hospitals.
EAHP is committed to continuing its investigation and reporting on shortages of medicines and medical devices across Europe. EAHP seeks insights not only from hospital pharmacists but also from patients and other healthcare professionals working in hospital settings. The goal is to address the issue at the European level and incorporate preventive measures into ongoing and future legislative initiatives.
To this end, EAHP has launched its 2025 Shortages Survey, that has been refined to gather more precise data on medical device shortages. Additionally, new questions have been introduced to explore the role of compounding in managing medicine shortages and the use of national and European lists of critical medicines.
The survey will remain open for 2 months and is currently available in the following languages, with more to come soon*:
| English | ||
| Bulgarian |
| |
| ||
| ||
|
*In case of interpretative doubts while using the translations, please refer to English version.
On 11 March 2025, the European Commission published its proposal for a Critical Medicines Act. This initiative outlines key actions such as incentivising strategic projects, rethinking procurement models, and fostering international strategic partnerships to strengthen the EU’s medicine supply resilience.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) welcomes the inclusion of several recommendations developed through multi-stakeholder initiatives, notably the Structured Dialogue and the Critical Medicines Alliance, in which EAHP played an active role.
However, EAHP believes further efforts are essential to ensure the Act delivers meaningful, patient-centred impact, and therefore calls for:
Read the EAHP’s Opinion on the Critical Medicines Act HERE
In 2012, the EAHP adopted its first position paper on medicines shortages which outlined the responsibilities of the different supply chain actors. A revision in 2019 led to the adoption of EAHP’ latest position paper on medicines shortages which
advises national governments to evaluate if their shortages measures and management systems are fit for purpose and to rectify shortcomings where and when needed;
urges national governments and healthcare organisations to evoke appropriate staffing levels in order to lower the impact that medicines shortages currently have on the overall patient services provided by hospital pharmacists;
calls on the European Commission to urgently commence an investigation of the medicines shortage problem looking at the causing factors and propose solutions that will help alleviate or solve shortages;
appeals for improved information exchange between authorities and supply chain actors as well as best practice sharing and implementation support on shortage management strategies between relevant national regulatory bodies to support patient safety; and,
urges the EMA and the HMA to consider the development of a comprehensive communication strategy on medicines shortages.
EAHP adopted a new position paper on Medicines Shortages during the 54th EAHP General Assembly in 2024. Please find the positon paper HERE.
To improve shortages monitoring and mitigation, and to provide more information on this matter, EMA recently set up the European Shortages Monitoring Platform (ESMP)
For more information about this and other EMA’s initiatives regarding shortages, have a look on their website: ema.europa.eu
EAHP is collaborating with EMA to raise awareness on medicine shortages and the possible solutions.
Detailed information on EAHP’s five medicines shortages surveys is available via the following links:
The Working Group on unavailability of indispensable medicinal products of the French National Academy of Pharmacy and EAHP have joined forces to create different lists of indispensable medicines in relation to different treatment areas. In 2021, both organisations worked on a List of Indispensable Anti-Cancer Drugs.
In 2013, a common position paper was formed through the European Medicines Agency patient and healthcare professional stakeholder groups. The common position paper touches on possible causes of shortages and proposes measures to prevent and manage supply shortages of medicines in the current regulatory framework. A letter to the European Commission was prepared by European pharmacy associations (EAHP, EIPG and PGEU) to request action.
In early 2017, the medicines supply chain stakeholders (AESGP, EAHP, EAEPC, EFPIA, EIPG, GIRP, Medicines for Europe, PGEU) issued a joint statement on information and medicinal products shortages. The recommendations included in this document call for greater transparency and availability of medicines shortage data, early detection and assessment of potential shortages, consistency of reporting, increased access to the information available across all parts of the supply chain, improved data infrastructure, and collaborative governance processes.
In May 2019, EAHP together with 30 national and European associations of patients, consumers, healthcare professionals and public health advocates approached the European Commission with the request to start an investigation into the factors leading to medicines shortages. In September, the initiative gathered more than 40 organisations and reached out the to the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee of the European Parliament. In a letter addressed to the ENVI committee’s chair, its vice chairs and the group coordinators, the initiative highlighted their growing concern about medicines shortages and called upon the ENVI committee to act.
Medicines shortages, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic, are not only a concern for hospital pharmacists but also for those working in the field of oncology. The European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) is consequently collecting regular information on the situation. EAHP supports this data collection which can be accessed via ESOP’s website.
On 17 September 2020, the European Parliament adopted a Report on the “Shortage of medicines – how to address an emerging problem”. Together with the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL), the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), France Assos Santé and Prescrire, EAHP has put together a list of actions (see HERE) that should be prioritised.
