20th Congress Press Conference

Location: CCH-Congress Center Hamburg, Am Dammtor / Marseiller Str., 20355 Hamburg, Germany - Hall 7

Date & time: 25th March 2015, 12.30 - 13.30

Speakers: 

Dr. Roberto Frontini (Germany) - EAHP President  Prof. Dr. Cees Neef (The Netherlands) - EAHP Director of Education, Science and Research
Joan Peppard (Ireland) - EAHP President-Elect    

Moderator: 

Dr. Torsten Hoppe-Tichy (Germany) - member of the EAHP Scientific Committee

Talking points:

German version here.

The Congress Theme & Hospital Pharmacy Education  (Prof. Dr. Cees Neef)

"The hospital pharmacist's agenda - patient safety first"

The hospital pharmacist profession developed from a medicine to a patient centred profession and our first commitment to the patients is to assure their safe medication. No other professionals can give major input to achieve this goal but of course we are not the only ones. The best outcome for patients can only be achieved through collaborative care including doctors and nurses. Looking on our agenda we have to focus on patient safety but also on proper communication with our colleagues as an important part of the task.

The 20th Congress of the EAHP in Hamburg (25-27 March 2015) will give a focus to these questions through a series of carefully selected keynote speeches, and a large programme of workshops, seminars and satellite events. Other key topics to be explored by the Congress include:

  • Patient empowerment through education
  • Improving patient safety through multidisciplinary teamwork
  • Medication safety in transitions of care
  • Medication reconciliation on admission

The 20h Congress will also see the second year of operation of Good Practice Initiatives, designed to help hospital pharmacists learn in a direct way how colleagues in other countries have approached implementing improvement, and how lessons can be shared and applied elsewhere.
http://www.eahp.eu/practice-and-policy/good-practice-initiatives-europea...

The full Scientific Programme and links to other aspects of the Congress are available here: http://www.eahp.eu/congresses/programme

At the press conference, Prof Kees Neef will explain the theme and main features of the Congress in more detail, and take questions on any specific elements of interest to members of the press in attendance.

The creation of a Common Training Framework for hospital pharmacy specialisation in Europe

Following important changes made to the EU Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications in 2013/4, EAHP and its members are now making important early steps in the creation of a common training framework for hospital pharmacy specialization in Europe. This would:

  • enable a common understanding of the hospital pharmacy specialisation to develop across Europe, in a similar mode to that which has emerged medical and dental specialties
  • provide a benchmark suite of competencies for postgraduate hospital pharmacy education that all European countries can aim for, helping to raise practice standards and improve patient care across all health systems
  • enable a step change in mobility between countries of highly skilled and experienced professionals in the hospital pharmacy sector

A Steering Committee is now in construction to oversee the completion of this task, including the conduct of important tasks such as mapping the competencies provided by hospital pharmacy specialization programmes across Europe.

The press conference provides an opportunity for members of the media to gain more information about how specialization and hospital pharmacy education in individual countries relates to EAHP's common training framework project.

The Future of Hospital Pharmacy in Europe (Dr. Roberto Frontini)

Implementing the European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy

At a landmark Summit event in Brussels in 2014, EAHP 34 member country associations came together with representations of European healthcare professional and patient organisations to set out the vision for what hospital pharmacy services should achieve in all European countries: the 44 European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy.

EAHP and its member associations now turn their attention to the implementation of the Statements, and to that end, the press conference will provide an exclusive opportunity to share with members of the press:

  • The early results of a new baseline survey of the current state of practice in hospital pharmacy in Europe; and,
  • The further additions made to the EAHP online repository of Good Practice Initiatives, aimed at giving hospital pharmacists practical case studies from around Europe of hospitals who've made achievements in areas of statement implementation, and how they did it.

The press conference will provide members of the media with further opportunities to ask questions to the panel on all aspects related to the European Statements of Hospital Pharmacy, including connected investigations into the implementation and service measurement challenges faced by hospital pharmacists across Europe. More information in the articles by David Cousins and David Gerrett in the special Summit edition of the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy HERE.

Current issues facing hospital pharmacists (Joan Peppard)

Medicines shortages in Europe
In the past year EAHP has taken a lead in ensuring the problems caused to patient care by medicines shortages receives due attention at the European level. Accordingly, the largest ever European survey was conducted to shed new light on the scale and nature of the problem of medication shortages.

Over 600 hospital pharmacists from 32 countries responded to the EAHP survey, and the results were stark:

  • 86% of hospital pharmacists reported that medicines shortages are a current problem in the hospital they work in, in terms of providing the best care to patients and/or operating the hospital pharmacy
  • 66% of respondents said that medicines shortages affect their hospital pharmacy on a daily or weekly basis
  • Antimicrobial agents, oncology products, emergency medicines, cardiovascular medicines and anaesthetic agents are the principal medicine groups affected by shortages
  • 75.4% of hospital pharmacists either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "medicines shortages in my hospital are having a negative impact on patient care."
  • 63% of hospital pharmacists estimate that the typical medicines shortage normally lasts for a number of weeks
  • Reported impacts for patients include delayed or interrupted chemotherapy treatment, unnecessary experience by patients of side effects, heightened clostridium difficile risk and deterioration in patients' conditions.

Full report HERE.

Press release HERE.

Video HERE.

The press conference provides an opportunity for members of the media to gain more information about how medicines shortages are affecting individual countries and the progress being made towards achieving some European level measures of resolution.

To register for the congress and press conference, as press representative and/or to receive a Press Kit please contact Sandra.Teixeira[at]eahp[dot]eu.

Last update: 5 February 2015