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• intensive & critical care
• pain management
• health informatics
• information management

The 35-member organisations of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) adopted a new position paper on medicines shortages at their 49th General Assembly held last weekend in Edinburgh, UK. The topic of medicines shortages has occupied the members of the EAHP for quite some time due to its growing impact on patient care and the work of hospital pharmacists.

Since 2012, members of the EAHP have increasingly reported difficulties in sourcing medicines required in their hospitals. Consequently, the profession with the support of the EAHP has been working on raising awareness about the problems that medicines shortages cause. To this end, hospital pharmacists have proactively shared information with other healthcare professionals in their working environments on how medicines shortages are managed and continuity of supply is ensured.

However, despite the early advocacy efforts by the EAHP and the ongoing interventions of its members, reports on medicines shortages continued to materialise at accelerating speed throughout Europe. To establish a better understanding of the problem in European hospitals, the EAHP conducted three different surveys in 2013, 2014 and 2018, which illustrated the far-reaching consequences that medicines shortages pose. In particular, the percentage of hospital pharmacists reporting shortages to be an issue in terms of delivering the best care to patients has seen a significant increase in the past couple of years with over 90% of survey respondents highlighting in 2018 that medicines shortages are a problem faced in their hospital pharmacy.

To significantly lower the negative impact that medicines shortages have on the well-being of patients, the EAHP’s members agreed on the complete revision of its previous position paper which had been in force since 2012. In particular, European hospital pharmacists are underlining the need for concrete European action since the problems caused by medicines shortages cannot be handled solely at …