Background The number of drugs used has increased in recent years. Some patients need an explanation of how to use their drugs and how to prevent medical errors. The pharmacy consultation centre in St. Ann University Hospital has offered a service for more than 11 years for in- and outpatients. They can consult pharmacists about their drug-related problems.

Purpose To analyse what the most frequent topics of consultations were in 2011 and 2012.

To find out how pharmacists provide counselling to patients by repeat cheque-up appointments.

Materials and Methods Patient records were examined retrospectively in 2011 and 2012 (January–September) looking at the number of visits, age and sex of patients, topics of patient questions. Pharmacists offered patients repeat cheque-up appointments to increase the compliance with recommendations.

Results The authors performed 85 consultations in the last two years for 47 patients (number of new patients: 25 in 2011, 22 in 2012). Median age was 64.5 years, 25 women and 22 men. Median duration of consultation was 21 minutes. The most frequent topics of consultation: potential drug interactions 36%, correct use of drugs 19%, drug side effects 6.5%, weight loss 6.5%. Pharmacist interventions included the recommendation ‘how to use it’ 57.4%, replacement and/or discontinuatio of drugs 6.4%, diet and lifestyle change 14.9%. The number of patients who visited the consultation centre repeatedly according to the recommendations, was 17 (68%) in 2011 and 13 (59%) in 2012.

Conclusions Patient-orientated care in pharmacy consultation centre enables us to prevent the patients from using the drugs incorrectly. Analysis of the data showed a variety of interventions by the hospital pharmacists, who helped patients with their problems by several repeated consultations.

No conflict of interest.