EAHP EU Monitor - 18 December 2014

The EAHP EU Monitor is a regular round up of news relevant to hospital pharmacy in Europe.

You can subscribe to receive the EAHP EU Monitor by email here. 

 

Short update on forming a common training framework for hospital pharmacy specialisation

Following a meeting on 10th November 2014, EAHP is now constructing a formal steering committee to oversee its project to form a common training framework for hospital pharmacy specialisation in Europe.

A common training framework is a new tool that allows 10 EU countries to agree a set of competencies that should be delivered by a particular qualification. This can then form the basis of automatic recognition of that qualification between the participating countries. It takes a legal meaning through a Delegated Act of the European Commission under the authority of the revised Professional Qualifications Directive.

In order to facilitate the mobility of hospital pharmacists, create a common benchmark for hospital pharmacy specialisation across Europe, and facilitate the continuous raising of standards of practice and patient care in all its member countries, EAHP is working with its member associations to scope out how such a framework for hospital pharmacy specialisation in Europe might be created.

The initial stage of the project is being led by a partnership of EU countries with legally mandatory specialisation programmes for hospital pharmacy in place. A first meeting on 10th November 2014 with those countries undertook to construct a formal steering committee to oversee the project and recommended a robust mapping exercise of Europe's hospital pharmacy specialization programmes be conducted. The new Committee will meet in early 2015 and report to the EAHP membership on the first stages of its work at the EAHP Congress in Hamburg (25-27th March 2015).

In the meantime, EAHP members can read the report of the 10th November meeting here.

The EAHP secretariat is also happy to answer any further questions or queries its members may have on the status of the project. The secretariat should be contacted via info[at]eahp[dot]eu



European Commission seek opinion on changes to the Working Time Directive

The European Commission has issued an online public consultation asking how the Working Time Directive (WTD) should be changed. Responses to the consultation, due by 15 March 2015, will contribute to the Commission's current review and assessment of the impact of the WTD on workers, employers and services across Europe.

The Commission will use the results of the consultation exercise to inform a proposal for a new law, expected to be published later in 2015.

For health professionals in the hospital sector amongst the key issues related to the Directive include how 'on-call' time is defined and treated under the terms of the Directive.

Consultation here.



Alltrials campaign encourages European responses to USA consultations on clinical trial transparency rules

The Alltrials campaign is encouraging interested stakeholders from around the world to respond to current consultations by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand reporting of clinical trial results, and to make that a condition of research funding

HHS has launched a consultation on expanding the scope of the FDA Amendment Act 2007 to include requirements that clinical trials of unlicensed medicines and for off-label uses be registered and report results on ClinicalTrials.gov. NIH has launched a concurrent consultation on requiring all clinical trials it funds to be registered and report results, regardless of whether they are subject to FDAAA.

The closing date for both consultations is 19th February 2015 and are open to respondents from outside the USA.

More information here.



EJHP: Reflections on a career in paediatric pharmacy

As an editorial to a themed issue on paediatrics, the latest edition of the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy includes a reflection by Dr Sharon Conroy of the Department of Child Health at the University of Nottingham (UK) on her professional life spent in paediatric hospital pharmacy.

Full article here.