THE HISTORY OF EAPT

2011-2016 // ARCHIVE OF MEETINGS

As seen from our history, the first formal EAPT meeting took place in 2011. This was after the Committee of European Pharmacy Technicians (CEPT) country members at the 2009 meeting in Oslo, Norway, approved the inception and transition of CEPT to an ‘Association’. The 2010 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, laid down the foundations for EAPT and worked on the statutes required to take the association’s registration forwards for it to be a formal legal organisational.

Every year since these early days, EAPT have met annually, hosted in turn, by a national association of the EAPT members.

Every year full notes, attendee information and minutes of the meetings are produced by the EAPT Secretary and approved by the EAPT members at the next annual meeting. Here are the key points and milestones of these meetings showing the work and progression of EAPT from 2011 to 2016.

The highlight of the 2016 meeting was the reporting that, following much Board activity and communication during 2015/16 the official EAPT registration took place on 29th February 2016 in Brussels, Belgium. The Association’s official address and company number is Route d’Eupen, 36 - B-4837 BAELEN - Belgium: Registered Company number 0649.800.723. The Belgium Association of Pharmacy Technicians has shared this address for EAPT and is now looking to become EAPT members. The EAPT articles are in French and an English translated version was signed at the EAPT 2016 meeting. The European project had been improved and adjusted by France, Denmark, Portugal and the UK. It was submitted to the European Commission in time for the deadline of 31st March 2016. The outcome of the submission’s success was expected in June/July 2016. The community pharmacy scoping survey outcomes were now complete and ready for publication. EAPT agreed to add the survey report and results to the website and to advertise this through Twitter and Facebook. It was also agreed to revisit and update the survey as necessary on an annual basis. EAPT invited guest, Joan Peppard, President of EAHP, to address the country members providing an overview of the EAHP 2016/17 strategies and projects. The EAHP presentation informed on the structure and governance of the organisation along with their strategic goals. One of the goals outlined was to look at a ‘Model Hospital’ and provide good practise tools and initiatives. Ensuing discussions looked at furthering the EAPT/EAHP collaboration and after much debate it was agreed that this needed further consideration on how this could happen in the near future. Following the registration of EAPT the country members were asked a series of prepared questions on how to take the association forwards. The discussions and questions included revisiting the EAPT vision, aims and purpose and the feedback concluded that the purpose of EAPT is integral to the professional Pharmacy Technician role, education and continuing professional development. The Board were tasked with produce an activity plan for 1 year with SMART objectives and clear outputs and sign offs and developing the associations’ financial procedures.

It was reported by the President at the 2015 meeting that recent collaboration with the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHT) and proposals to include a Pharmacy Technician symposium at the EAHP 2015 congress was not possible as EAPT was not yet a registered organisation. The President updated the country members on the registration progress and indicated that this was now in the final stages. It was also reported that collaboration with FIP has continued and a new working group board had been set up for the 2015 congress. EAPT Vice President had been asked to be part of the Board and to chair the Pharmacy Technician Symposium. The EAPT President was also presenting on ‘Creating a mobile workforce in Europe – lessons learnt about aligning roles across borders’. The website development was also in the final stages and it was also agreed to open an EAPT Facebook page along (https://www.facebook.com/EAPT2010) with a social media Twitter account (#EAPT2010 @eapt2010) to advertise the purpose and work of EAPT. A flyer had also been developed to use for providing information to both external organisations and for members to distribute to their countries’ associations. The President also reported that unfortunately European project application had been unsuccessful on this occasion. The total score the EAPT application received was 47.5 out of 100. This was pleasing and with the detailed feedback received, it was hoped to resubmit a revised application in 2015. The Editor for the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy joined the meeting and explained his role and plans to run a series of articles outlining the role of Pharmacy Technicians within Europe. EAPT country members were encouraged to submit articles. The community pharmacy working group presented the outcomes of the scoping survey’s that had been distributed during the year. The hospital working group presented the survey questions to the EAPT meeting. It was agreed by country members that work should progress with both survey’s being published within the coming year.

The 2014 annual meeting’s focus was mainly linked to the registration of EAPT as a legal entity in Belgium. The President updated country member’s on progress to date and explained that Belgium was the best option for registration. A meeting had taken place with a Belgium attorney/lawyer on 16th May 14 in Brussels to review the registration requirements and associated registration costs. The application would be written in French without the need for dual papers in English. The Statutes, proxies and application forms had been translated into French, prepared and adjusted to meet the requirements of Belgium law. Adjustments made have moved some internal rules into the statutes and some statutes need to be moved to the internal rules. It was agreed that a working party be set up (Portugal, UK & France) to map the revised statutes to the original document. The development of the EAPT website (www.eapt.info) had progressed and Germany gave a demonstration. The European project proposal ‘The introduction of a European Professional Card (EPC)’ was submitted on 30th April 2014 to the French agency of Erasmus+. The project application process was completed and submitted by France, Portugal, Denmark and UK. EAPT expected to hear shortly whether the application had been successful. The hospital pharmacy survey working group (Ireland, France, Croatia and Norway) set up in 2013 indicated that the report and subsequent position statement would include scoping the different areas and pharmacy technician roles in hospitals, together with any additional training, competencies or qualifications requirements. It was also agreed that a working group be set up (Denmark, Germany & Ireland) to produce a parallel report and EAPT position statement for community pharmacy. The Board 3 year elections took place and duly elected the 2013-2017 Board. This meeting was the last meeting for both Zdenko Tausic (Slovenia President) and Susanne Engstrøm (EAPT Vice President & Denmark President) as both were retiring. EAPT wished them both every happiness for their retirement and thanked them for their hard work over the years. EAPT acknowledged that Susanne Engstrøm had been part of the European Pharmacy Technician collaboration from its inception way back in the 1980s and congratulated on her continued loyalty commitment to the pharmacy technician profession.

The country members’ reports presented at the 2013 meeting, again, indicated that the austere economic climate across Europe was having an effect on pharmacy staff remuneration and pharmacy practice. The President informed that the European Project ‘Leonardo De Vinci’ was to become part of Erasmus in 2014 with a new name and rules and proposed that EAPT put forward a bid for funding that is available based on the type of project and location of countries. It was suggested that the EAPT 2014 bid could be based on competencies of pharmacy technicians in each country with the proposal of a European card for Pharmacy Technicians. The project would run for 2 years and involve participating countries sharing the tasks. Portugal and France agreed to circulate a brief paper to country members to further explain the proposal. The scope of the project would be to strengthen the quality and innovation in Pharmacy Technician education; to provide European comparisons and differences to inform on European mobility; to give countries, organisations and institutions confidence in the Pharmacy Technician European Labour Market. It was thought that it could link in with the proposed new directive and updating of the current directive 20005/36/EC by the European parliament and council on the recognition of professional qualifications. Following the resignation of the EAPT Secretary, the President proposed a new nomination which was unanimously supported and Tess Fenn (UK) was duly elected as the new Secretary. The now vacant position of EAPT Member was voted on and Monika Panduric (Slovenia) was elected to the Board.

At the 2012 meeting the common definition of a Pharmacy Technician was agreed as: ‘For the purpose of EAPT a Pharmacy Technician is a qualified pharmacy professional who holds a formal qualification in pharmaceutical science recognised by their countries regulatory organisations. The Pharmacy Technician is involved in optimising the use of medicines or medicinal products, within their national pharmacy legislation, in the best interests of patient safety.’ The country members were also informed that for the first time in the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) 100 year history, there would be a Pharmacy Technician Symposium held alongside the main annual congress. The Vice President indicated that she had been part of FIP for the last 11 years and now has a place on the pharmacy technician PT organising committee. Updates from the country members’ reports indicated that there was an economic downturn theme occurring across Europe affecting pharmacy staff numbers and remuneration. s not yet a registered organisation. The President updated the country members on the registration progress and indicated that this was now in the final stages. It was also reported that collaboration with FIP has continued and a new working group board had been set up for the 2015 congress. EAPT Vice President had been asked to be part of the Board and to chair the Pharmacy Technician Symposium. The EAPT President was also presenting on ‘Creating a mobile workforce in Europe – lessons learnt about aligning roles across borders’. The website development was also in the final stages and it was also agreed to open an EAPT Facebook page along (https://www.facebook.com/EAPT2010) with a social media Twitter account (#EAPT2010 @eapt2010) to advertise the purpose and work of EAPT. A flyer had also been developed to use for providing information to both external organisations and for members to distribute to their countries’ associations. The President also reported that unfortunately European project application had been unsuccessful on this occasion. The total score the EAPT application received was 47.5 out of 100. This was pleasing and with the detailed feedback received, it was hoped to resubmit a revised application in 2015. The Editor for the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy joined the meeting and explained his role and plans to run a series of articles outlining the role of Pharmacy Technicians within Europe. EAPT country members were encouraged to submit articles. The community pharmacy working group presented the outcomes of the scoping survey’s that had been distributed during the year. The hospital working group presented the survey questions to the EAPT meeting. It was agreed by country members that work should progress with both survey’s being published within the coming year.

Our 2011 UK meeting focused mainly on working up the new association’s processes and holding the first election of the formal Board. EAPTs internal rules, which provide the organisational operational and performance details, were agreed. These included the process for electing the association’s Board. Article 6 of the statutes set out the structure of the Board; made up of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and a Member. Voting took place resulting in the Boards first constitution being put into place. The EAPT logo was also agreed by a panel set up to select a winner from the logos designed and submitted by the country members. The winning design was developed by Norway and remains in place to this day. To take EAPTs work forwards it was agreed that the Board would look towards registering the association in Belgium, review the possibility of an EAPT representative attending the EAHP congress and develop themes for European projects. In addition to Board activities it was agreed that working groups would start to work on specific projects such as the development of the EAPT Code of Ethics (Croatia, Sweden & Ireland ), development of a website (UK), development of a common pharmacy technician definition (France), review of the CEPT European Education Survey (Ireland & UK) and the scoping of possible sponsorship (Treasurer).