🔸The amendment is to increase the number of hospital beds in a given healthcare provider for calculating the minimum staffing standards for pharmacists in a hospital pharmacy. In a hospital pharmacy or a hospital pharmacy department, the minimum employment norm is calculated using the equivalent of at least one full-time equivalent of the manager of that pharmacy/hospital pharmacy department or the equivalent of at least one full-time equivalent of at least one pharmacist for every 100 beds or dialysis stations reported in the register of entities performing medical activities of the medical establishment supplied by that pharmacy or by that hospital pharmacy department.
🔸At the same time, the possibility of submitting an application to the provincial pharmaceutical inspector for permission not to count part of the beds in the calculation of the minimum staffing standards has been introduced. The beds that may be the subject of such a request must be used for the provision of health care services in the field of:
psychiatric care and addiction treatment;
inpatient rehabilitation;
nursing and care services within the framework of long-term care;
palliative and hospice care.
🔸In this case, the healthcare provider will have to prove that the provision of these services does not require the use of medicinal products that require the supervision of a pharmacist.
🔸As a consequence of making such a request, it will be possible to employ fewer pharmacists than the minimum staffing standards.