European Union Network for Patient Safety (EUNetPaS) officially launched in Utrecht, Netherlands 28-29 February
The EUNetPaS (European Union Network for Patient Safety) project was officially launched February 28-29 2008 in Utrecht, Netherlands. Funded and supported by the European Commission within the 2007 Public Health Programme, the project aims to establish an umbrella network of all 27 EU Member States and EU stakeholders to encourage and enhance collaboration in the field of Patient Safety. As project partner, PGEU will be active in four work packages.
EUNetPaS unites representatives of the European medical community (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, managers of healthcare organisations, patients’ associations, etc.) and the institutional partners involved in patient safety with the states of the European Union (members of national patient safety organisations and Member State’s Ministries of Health). It will also promote the involvement of stakeholders through national platforms organised around one EUNetPaS national contact point in every EU member states.
EUNetPaS focuses on four key topic areas:
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Promoting a Culture of Patient Safety;
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Structuring Education and Training in Patient;
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Implementing Reporting and Learning Systems;
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Pilot Implementation of Medication Safety.
EUNetPaS will facilitate the exchange of information and establish common principles at the EU level through the integration of knowledge, experiences and expertise gathered from Member States and EU stakeholders. It will facilitate the development of Patient Safety programmes in Member States and provide support to those countries less in the field. EUNetPaS will also contribute to the establishment of a European community of hospitals involved in Patient Safety. The next EUNetPaS meeting will be held September 22-23 2008 in Paris during the French Presidency of the European Union. It will involve high-level experts and decision makers as well as representatives of the civil society to discuss EU and national developments in the field of Patient Safety.
Further information on EUNetPaS is available at: http://www.eunetpas.eu
"Patient Safety: Maximising Patient Safety in Europe through the safe use of medicines"
Community pharmacists take safety issues seriously and have done so for a very long time.
Within the community pharmacy sector, many initiatives are already ongoing. However, these have to be coordinated and integrated in the global sphere of the continuum of care. Community pharmacists have been working in the development of processes and tools to ensure Patient Safety in community pharmacies, but it is important that both community pharmacists and health policy makers realise the synergies that can arise from integrating those processes in the Patient Safety path.
Moreover, community pharmacy practice is becoming patient centred and process oriented. Dispensing the appropriate medicine and providing the relevant information and care, to the right person, at the right time is central in the community pharmacist's daily practice, but many other actions of our daily practice are one way or another linked to Patient Safety. That is why it is not possible to identify single initiatives towards ensuring Patient Safety in community pharmacies without contextualizing them in the community pharmacy setting, the distribution chain and the continuum of care.
As for all health professionals, community pharmacists’ activity may have an impact in various elements of Patient Safety. In the PGEU document that can be downloaded below, we specifically focused on medication safety, an area where our expertise is of vital importance.
To download the Press release, please click here
To download the English version of the document, please click here
To download the French version, please click here