• anaesthetics
• anaesthesia
• pain management

The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) has been advocating on the issue of medicines shortages and its threat to patient care in hospitals and overall patient safety for a number of years. In 2014, EAHP released a report on Medicines Shortages in European Hospitals, the first European-wide survey conducted to address the issue of medicines shortages.

Since data on the prevalence, nature and impact for patient care of medicines supply shortages is still lacking, EAHP saw a need to launch a follow-up investigation. The survey, which was released on 19 March 2018, aims at providing a clearer picture on the impact that medicines shortages have had on the work carried out by hospital pharmacists. To this end, the survey will gather data on:

• The current nature of medicines shortages problems in Europe, including their prevalence.

• The most common types of shortages.

• Their impact on patient care and hospital pharmacy services.

• Existing national mechanisms for dealing with or monitoring shortages.

• How hospital pharmacists typically manage the problems shortages cause.

• Hospital pharmacist views on proposed policy solutions.

Through the collection of data on the prevalence of shortages, types of shortages and length of shortages, EAHP aspires to contribute to charting the current challenges hospital pharmacists face due to medicines shortages with an updated analytical report.

The survey will be open from 19 March 2018 to 11 June 2018 to collect information from European hospital pharmacists on the shortage situation in their respective countries. Interested hospital pharmacists can participate via the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EAHPshortagesurvey2018.