Content area
Full Text
Correspondence to Dr Richard Price, EAHP, 3 Rue Abbe Cuypers, Brussels 1040, Belgium; [email protected]
European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) President Dr Roberto Frontini has joined counterpart heads of international pharmacist associations in signing a new declaration on the role of pharmacists in achieving responsible medicines use across the globe.
The declaration was a highlight of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Congress in Amsterdam in October 2012, setting out in its key opening section that: ‘Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical scientists accept responsibility and accountability for improving global health and patient health outcomes by closing gaps in the development, distribution, and responsible use of medicines. Society can contribute to these objectives by supporting the advancement of pharmacy practice and the pharmaceutical sciences’.
In the statement's section on Responsible Use of Medicines, statistics were provided that in many countries up to half of all prescriptions are either unnecessary or incorrect, and in about half of cases patients do not take their medicines as prescribed. The active participation of...