Hospital Pharmacy

The main purpose of all pharmaceutical activity at the hospital is to ensure that effective, appropriate and economical medication is provided.

Within Valais Hospital, the main task of the Pharmacy Department of the Central Institute of hospitals is thus to provide an appropriate assortment of medicines for hospitalised patients. The hospital pharmacists and specialists from the various medical disciplines work together to draw up a list of medicines specific to Valais Hospital. The criteria of choice for this assortment are effectiveness, clinical utility and safety, but also financial and ecological aspects.

When the medicines are not available from the usual suppliers, they are imported from abroad, or manufactured by the Central Institute of hospitals pharmacy. The pharmacy is well-versed in medicine development, manufacturing and monitoring techniques, which allows it to focus on providing medicines that are not available on the market, in particular in the field of paediatrics. Furthermore, the premises of the Central Institute of hospitals pharmacy are appropriate for the manufacture of sterile medicines, which is mainly applied to the centralised preparation of all injectable antineoplastic chemotherapies.

Another important activity of the hospital pharmacy is to provide services and advice to medical and nursing staff, with the aim of ensuring that each patient receives his/her specific medicine in the proper manner, at the prescribed dosage and at the right time. Communication with the teams is done over the phone or directly on the wards, in particular during medical visits.

Hospital pharmacists more and more frequently establish direct contact with patients. At the time patients are admitted, for example, they draw up a precise list of the medicines the patient has taken at home. Upon discharge, they provide advice about any changes that have been made to the patient’s usual treatment.

In terms of training, different undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes are offered by the Central Institute of hospitals pharmacy, either exclusively in the centre, or in cooperation with university institutions.