Spain hospital pharmacy practice

In what follows, hospital pharmacy practice in Spain will be described. As an introduction, a brief history and description of the evolution of this discipline and the Spanish hospital pharmacists training program will be presented. Then, activities currently conducted by hospital pharmacy service personnel will be described and clinical pharmacy opportunities will be indicated. And finally, future trends will be outlined. Useful references will be given throughout the report. 

In Spain, pharmacy practice is also applied to the study, manufacture, control, and distribution of radiopharmaceuticals. Radiopharmaceuticals must be isolated from other drugs and personnel, and devices must follow Spanish regulations.Radiopharmacy is part of the hospital pharmacy service however, it is recommended that the unit be located close to the nuclear medicine department and supervised by a pharmacist specialist in radiopharmacy. 

Originally introduced in hospital pharmaceutical practice, and although lack of human staff has prevented its consolidation at all hospitals, clinical pharmacy has grown throughout Spain in recent years. Pharmaceutical care, introduced more recently, is the current trend in hospital pharmacy, and is being increasingly adopted in community pharmacy practice. 

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