EAHP surveyed its members at the beginning of the year 2010, on the status of the specialization in hospital pharmacy in their country.

Out of the 27 questions asked, the most important were:

• Is there a hospital pharmacists’ specialization exactly called “Specialization in hospital pharmacy” or such a specialization under a different name?
• Are there other specialist qualifications suitable for hospital pharmacists?
• When there is a specialist qualification for hospital pharmacists, is it compulsory for all pharmacists working in hospital pharmacy?
• What advantage is there to a pharmacist obtaining a specialist qualification when it is not mandatory?
• Which bodies are responsible for specialist qualifications for hospital pharmacists and which run the courses?
• What is the role of the national Hospital Pharmacists’ Association in the whole process of the specialization in hospital pharmacy? and
• Please provide a detailed curriculum(s) of your specialist course(s).

Preliminary results show that specialized hospital pharmacy care is provided in 12 EU Member States serving 72% of the total population of the EU.

The countries with the highest percentage of pharmacists with a specialization in hospital pharmacy out of the total number of hospital pharmacists are Belgium (100%), the Netherlands (90%), Spain (95%), France (93%), Italy and Czech Republic (60%), Hungary and Switzerland (50%) and Austria (49%).

The minimum time to undertake the specialization in hospital pharmacy varies from 1 year (Belgium), 2 years (Turkey), 3 years (5 countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Switzerland), 4 years (4 countries: Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Spain) to 5 years (Italy and Portugal).

EAHP will soon publish the results; watch this space for more information.