Background: Role of pharmacy in hospital emergency and disaster preparedness to support activities overload is increasingly appreciated even in relatively safe occidental countries. In 2016, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) published guidelines for pharmacy to prepare and respond to natural disasters.
Methods: An electronic survey based on the FIP guidelines was conducted with the support of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) in the hospital pharmacies of Europe. Some additional questions were added to improve the general knowledge on disaster preparedness in our continent.
Results: 298 surveys were completed in 25 countries. Most of the answers were from France (25%) and Spain (20%). 34% of the responders didn’t analyse their regional disaster’s risk and 44% didn’t practiced emergency drills. 14% of pharmacies have experienced at least one major event in the last 5 years. 33% of those pharmacies create and promote internal guidelines for impending emergency versus 14% for those who have not experienced disasters. Among pharmacies having experienced disaster, 70% have adequate local implementation of emergency procedures and 37% organise post-disaster analysis to improve for future disasters.
Conclusion: These results show that, nowadays, most European hospital’s pharmacies are not compliant with the FIP guidelines. However, the pharmacies having experienced disaster are more likely to create and promote internal disaster standard operating procedures. Further analysis and benchmarking are warranted in the whole world.