Hospital pharmacists commended for their effective response to terror attack in London

The following article has been published in the "The Pharmaceutical Journal", Vol 275, No 7358 p71, 16 July 2005 (http://www.pharmj.com/Editorial/20050716/news/p71terrorattack.html). We thing that it's of a great interest, so we copy it here in ehpb.

"Hospital pharmacists have been praised for the way in which they responded to last week’s terrorist attack in London.

John Farrell, head of pharmacy at the Royal Free Hospital, said that the pharmacy departments at the Royal Free, Whittington and University College hospitals had been commended in a post-disaster review for their responsiveness in supplying medicines needed to discharge patients to make beds available for victims of the explosions.

“Pharmacy really did deliver,” Mr Farrell said. “We were planning for up to 500 victims at the Royal Free Hospital.”

Mr Farrell also praised the response of AAH and Travenol, who provided additional emergency supplies. IV fluids were flown by helicopter to Epping Forest and then delivered to hospitals under police escort.

As a result of lessons learnt from the emergency, stocks of ketamine and hepatitis B and tetanus vaccines are to be increased.

Victims of the three explosions on underground trains and another on a bus were taken to the Royal London, University College, Royal Free, Whittington and St Mary’s hospitals, with The Royal London Hospital receiving the largest number.

Charles Tugwell, principal pharmacist responsible for co-ordinating the pharmacy response at The Royal London Hospital, said: “Staff in the pharmacy department worked as an excellent team throughout the day during which well over 200 casualties were treated.”

The immediate response was to make sure that a full clinical pharmacy service was provided to the A&E department. Within 20 minutes, many staff were on the wards helping to clear beds by decanting or discharging patients, Mr Tugwell said.

Staff remaining in the pharmacy department arranged emergency supplies of drugs, while others made sure that the needs of operating theatres, the intensive therapy unit, and other emergency areas, as well as the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, were predicted and responded to."

Hospital Pharmacy Europe now on line!

Hospital Pharmacy Europe, the journal from Campden Publishing (http://www.campden.com) is now available as an online magazine (http://www.campden.com/default.asp?ptid=3&pid=3&pgid=1).

Hospital Pharmacy Europe delivers a wide range of up-to-date information critical to the practice of today's pharmacists and prescribing clinicians.Hospital Pharmacy Europe is specifically designed to deliver a wide range of up-to-the-minute information critical to the practice of today’s hospital pharmacist …
• Bulletin – Coverage of the latest news and research, including in-depth news reviews and comment from opinion-leaders
• Regulars – Including conference reports and book reviews. Each issue contains topical articles written by leading hospital pharmacists and clinicians from across Europe ...
• Clinical reviews – Examining trends in disease management and innovations in drug therapy that are likely to have a significant impact on hospital pharmacy practice.
• Policy & practice – Developments in European healthcare policy and changes to hospital pharmacy practice.
• Technology update – Automation and information technology play an increasingly important part in the hospital setting. Hospital Pharmacy Europe provides information on the key advances.

Clinical Pharmacy Europe. Coming soon...in October 2005

A new journal is going to be published from the Campden Publishing (http://www.campden.com/).

The editor comments that:
Clinical Pharmacy Europe will be the first journal to address the ever expanding responsibility of today’s European Clinical Pharmacist.
Clinical Pharmacy Europe will promote and expertly comment on the safe and effective use of medicines in all clinical settings.
Clinical Pharmacy Europe editorial content will cover:
• Clinical reviews – key clinical topics, innovations in clinical pharmacy services, and critical medicines safety issues. All articles include value-added ‘extras’ such as useful contacts, related websites and links, and recommended literature and other resources.
• Cost benefit analysis – In-depth examinations of drugs efficacy against relative costs
• Short papers and reports – a platform for clinical pharmacists to communicate at an international level and to share ideas and experiences through well-structured reports.
• ‘Europe wide’ – A cutting edge dissection of clinical pharmacy practice across European countries
• Key news stories – Extensive coverage of the issues of the day, including a round-up of the latest research and in-depth news features on hot topics with comment from key opinion leaders.
• Book reviews - comment from experts on new publications.
• Plus … opinion-leading editorial comment, regular and guest columnists, reviews of new resources, and details of international courses and events

Future congresses

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)
http://www.fip.org/
FIP 65th Annual Congress
2 - 8 September 2005
Cairo, Egypt
http://www.fip.org/cairo2005/


European Society of Clinical Pharmacy
http://www.escpweb.org/site/cms/
34th European Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy
26-29 October 2005
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.associationhq.com/escp/amsterdam/


International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research
http://www.ispor.org/
ISPOR 8th Annual European Congress
6-8 November 2005,
Palazzo Degli Affari, Florence, Italy
http://www.ispor.org/congresses/italy1105/index.asp


European Association of Hospital Pharmacists
http://www.eahponline.com/
11th Congress of the EAHP
22 - 24 March 2006
Palexpo Congress Centre, Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.eahponline.com/asp/congress.asp?m=5

The new issue of EJHP is ready!

The new issue (Year 2005 Issue 4) of the EJHP -European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy- is ready as you can see in the website of EAHP - European Association of Hospital Pharmacists- (http://www.eahponline.com)

In the contents you can find the "Cover story" "New drug developments in haemato-oncology"
http://www.eahponline.com/asp/practice.asp?m=4&s=2&c=no&offset=5

In this issue the "Country focus" is dedicated to Greece:)
http://www.eahponline.com/asp/practice.asp?m=4&s=2&year=2005&nr=4

Also, the EJHP SCIENCE JOURNAL is ready (Year 2005 Issue 3) in the address:
http://www.eahponline.com/asp/science.asp?m=4&s=3&year=2005&nr=3

It's a great issue!

Where are the codes?

I have a problem. Any time I try to find the ATC code of a drug, I have to search the Google adding the active substance of the medication and the word ATC to find it. A colleague of mine told me that if I want the complete list from WHO I have to pay to buy it!!!

I found the following addresses in order to answer my question: "where are the codes?"

http://www.dimdi.de/dynamic/de/klassi/downloadcenter/

In this address there are more files, like the:

ICD-10-GM (SGB-V-Adaption) Version 2005
OPS Version 2005
ICD-10-WHO Version 2005
ATC/DDD Version 2005
ICD-9 ICD-6 ICD-8
UMDNS/GMDN Version 1.1 Version 1.0
ICF final draft 2004

http://www.dimdi.de/dynamic/de/klassi/downloadcenter/atc-ddd/version2005/atcddd_2005.pdf
http://www.msupply.org.nz/files/atc_alphabetical.pdf
http://www.msupply.org.nz/files/atc_categories.pdf