President, Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists
In Japan, about 8,200 hospitals across the country provide daily medical care for inpatients and outpatients. There are about 63,000 pharmacists working at hospitals, clinics, and nursing care insurance facilities across the country. The Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists(JSHP)is an organization with about 47,000 full-member pharmacists who work at hospitals, clinics, and nursing care insurance facilities. JSHP conducts various activities to contribute to the promotion of the health and welfare of citizens by providing high-quality drug therapy.Japan’ s medical care is undergoing a major change. In order to address various problems associated with the recent declining birthrate and aging population, reform such as differentiation and collaboration between hospital functions and establishment of a community-based integrated care system are being carried forward in the area of medical care and nursing care.
Under such circumstances, in addition to further enhancing hospital ward operations, hospital pharmacists are expected to participate in outpatient care and perioperative care, support hospitalization and discharge, cooperate with community pharmacy pharmacists, and establish a system to provide necessary drugs to patients without shortages in order to seamlessly connect the management of drug therapy, which pharmacists should be responsible for.
While work-style reform is also required at medical sites, in the task shift/share promoted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a measure to reduce the burden on physicians, high expectations have been placed on the occupational ability of pharmacists.
To meet these expectations, it is necessary to secure an appropriate number of pharmacists according to the functions of each medical institution. JSHP is also committed to working on problems such as a lack of pharmacists, uneven distribution among regions, and uneven distribution by function.