Background Due to the limited selection of drugs (adjusted to the specialties of the hospital in question), hospitals are not always able to satisfy the patients’ demands for medicines, therefore the patients often bring their own medicines to the hospital. This seems to be financially beneficial for hospitals, but it is not entirely lawful and the inaccurate administration of drugs (caused by uncontrolled and sometimes hidden drug taking) leads to medicines errors.

This is a significant problem of daily practice and it is unfortunately present in all hospitals in the country.

Purpose To describe the motivation and the attitudes of the stakeholders (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, patients) and their daily practice.

Material and methods Pharmacists were asked to fill in an anonymous online survey. They were reached through the Chief Pharmacists. (The response rate was 70% (26 hospitals).) 14 wards of our hospital were approached. The head nurses filled in an anonymous printed survey. The response rate was 93%. The attitudes of the inpatients of two wards was also compared, which differed in the average length of in-patient stay (one short-term and one long-term) by interviewing 74 patients.

Results Controversial legislation leads to uncertainty. All the three surveys showed that there is no standardised practice, it follows that individual solutions are used everywhere. However – in spite of the current laws – it is still important to know about and to document the products that are taken by the treated patients.

Conclusion Under current regulations the complexity of what medicines patients are really taking is not clear during the hospital treatment. The survey revealed that there is a strong need among patients and health care staff for new legislation which would clearly regulate the kinds of drugs that can be brought to the hospital, and the conditions under which they can be used.

References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.