European Hospital Pharmacy Blog: May 2009

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Common European Drug Database (CEDD) project

The Common European Drug Database (CEDD) project is an initiative of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration of Hungary to make prices of pharmaceuticals easily available for the public of Europe.

The present website is a pilot version with the contribution of the:

Irish Health Service Executive,
Finnish Ministry of Social Affaires and Health,
Slovenian Health Insurance Institute,
Slovakian Ministry of Health,
Department of Pharmacy under the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania,
Polish Ministry of Health,
Norwegian Medicines Agency,
Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions and
State Institute of Drug Control of the Czech Republic

The developers hope that this initiative will be shortly extended to all Member States of the European Union. Comprehensive and updated price information could result in a more competitive, common European pharmaceutical market, which would mean a great health benefit for European citizens and stimulation to European innovation.

In the present version of the website you can search and compare the prices of Austrian, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Irish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian and Slovakian pharmaceuticals according to product names or ATC codes.

Source

http://cedd.oep.hu/drugs.tib?s=drug-art&f=ceddart1&id=l8xakdcq3osro9bz&portallang=en

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Tony West received the 2009 Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) gold medal

Tony West received the 2009 Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) gold medal in recognition of his sustained contribution to hospital pharmacy at national level in UK.

Tony West is chief pharmacist and clinical director, Pharmacy and Medicines Management, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London.

The award was presented at the Annual National Joint GHP/UKCPA conference by Guild President Richard Cattell.

Tony is a past president of the Guild and is currently a member of the board of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), where he serves as director of professional development.

Dear Tony congratulations from the European Hospital Pharmacy Blog ;)

Source

Pharmacy Europe

Thursday, May 21, 2009

War on hospital bugs

The European Parliament adopted a report backing measures designed to reduce the millions of infections picked up by patients in hospitals each year. The recruitment of specialised nurses, better education, support for research and better information for patients are among the measures proposed.

Patient safety is of increasing concern in healthcare systems everywhere. The most common problems are healthcare associated infections, medication-related events and complications during or after operations. Many such problems could be avoided fairly easily.

To help achieve this aim, MEPs are being asked to approve with amendments, under the consultation procedure, a draft Council recommendation on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections. The report on this subject was drafted by Amalia Sartori (EPP-ED, IT) and adopted with 521 votes in favour, 6 against and 5 abstentions.

MEPs call for a 20% improvement by 2015

The Council recommendation calls for national programmes and policies on patient safety, better information to patients, improved reporting on "adverse events" such as infections, promotion of training for healthcare workers and knowledge sharing between Member States. MEPs believe it is important to set a reduction target for Member States to meet, so the amendments include a goal of a 20% reduction by 2015, or 900,000 cases a year. Commission studies indicate that such a reduction is achievable.

Millions affected each year

Adverse events occur in between 8% and 12% of patients admitted to EU hospitals, according to Commission statistics. This amounts to 6.7 to 15 million hospital inpatients.

In addition, some 37 million primary care patients a year suffer adverse effects linked directly to the treatment they have received. Among the most common are infections contracted in hospitals and other points of care. On average, these occur in one hospital patient in 20, giving an annual total of 4.1 million patients.

Even more worryingly, nosocomial infections (those resulting from treatment in a hospital or a healthcare service unit, but secondary to the patient's original condition) kill approximately 37,000 people every year. They are among the most frequent and destructive causes of unintended harm.

Factors that help trigger and spread nosocomial infections include viral antibiotic resistance, a high bed occupancy rate, the increase in patient transfers, an inadequate staff to patient ratio, a failure to pay proper heed to hand hygiene and various other practices serving to prevent infections, incorrect use of medical devices.

REF. : 20090422IPR54195