Dr Roberto Frontini, President of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, explains the concepts behind the European Summit on Hospital Pharmacy, and why its outcomes should positively impact practice in all European countries.

Anniversaries offer a productive opportunity to reflect on the past and contemplate the future. And so it was that in 2012, as we marked the 40th anniversary of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, we contemplated how best to continue the pursuance of our guiding mission: to develop and represent the hospital pharmacy profession at the European and international levels.

At this time we were also reviewing the findings of the largest ever survey of hospital pharmacy practice in Europe, conducted over the course of 2010, and published in full by the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy last year. While its findings gave many grounds for gratification in terms of the level of hospital pharmacy practice being achieved in some parts of Europe, it also left us with a keen sense that there was much more to do in terms of ‘raising all ships with the tide’.

For this reason we determined upon the concept of an …