We believe that we are winning the championship of implementing clinical pharmacy at Danish hospitals and thereby assisting in ensuring optimal medication use among patients in this setting, even though it is at times a tedious struggle.

In Denmark, a national definition of clinical pharmacy exists (box 1), and the tasks performed are categorised into three levels1 (box 2).

To ensure coherence and common direction of clinical pharmacy in Denmark, a national strategy for 2012–2015 has been developed by members of hospital pharmacy management of all five regions in Denmark in addition to members from Amgros (box 3). Among other things, the strategy aims to implement the medicine policy of the Danish regions, which includes focus on three topics:

• ▶ Quality and coherence in patient treatment.

• ▶ Prioritising and effective use of resources.

• ▶ Research and development.

For several years, the main clinical pharmacy tasks were concentrated at the ward and management level, but during the last decade, clinical pharmacy at the patient level has developed significantly and continues to do so. A survey performed by the Research Unit for Hospital Pharmacy in 2008 showed that 95 clinical pharmacists were performing clinical pharmacy activities from 13 hospital pharmacies of the then 14 hospital pharmacies in Denmark, which was an increase of 190% compared with a survey conducted in 2003.2 However, the majority of the working hours are still spent at the ward and management level, and a follow-up survey in 2013 …