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19 February 2026
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Health Services Research and Pharmacy Practice (HSRPP) Conference 2024
Visit our to secure your place.
Conference theme: Sustainable Development in Healthcare
When: 25 – 26 April 2024
Where: ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Why we chose 'Sustainable Development in Healthcare' as the conference theme
Sustainability is a key issue for policymakers, health services, pharmacy practice, and patient care – both now and for our collective future. The United Nations has recognised that sustainable development is an important global issue and have outlined that must be urgently addressed. Moreover, ‘’ is one of the set out by the International Pharmaceutical Federation.
Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This conference theme allows for the submission of abstracts on a wide variety of interesting research topics, which may include priority research areas for sustainable development in health services and pharmacy practice, such as (but not exclusive to):
- sustainable and appropriate use of medication to reduce wastage and patient harm.
- enhanced models of care to reduce healthcare utilisation while empowering patients.
- use of digital platforms, minimising waste and patient travel.
- advancement of healthcare professionals’ development, whilst sustaining their well-being and reducing the risk of burnout.
- incorporation of education on sustainability at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Sustainability is one of the core values of ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork (UCC), and this has been recognised internationally by UCC winning ‘Sustainability Institution of the Year’ at the International Green Gown Awards 2023. UCC was the first university globally to receive a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education, and we here at UCC pride ourselves in our ‘Green Campus’ – with its beautiful buildings and surroundings making an enjoyable place for a stroll.
The conference chairs are Dr Suzanne McCarthy and Dr Kieran Dalton from the School of Pharmacy in UCC.
About the HSRPP 2024 conference
This is the 30th HSRPP conference – our ‘pearl’ anniversary – and it represents an excellent opportunity to acquire plenty of new ‘pearls’ of wisdom to spark ideas and help inform and improve future developments in health services research.
The HSRPP conference has a long legacy of disseminating novel research pertaining to medication use and pharmaceutical care that guides practice and policy change in health services, ultimately making a difference to the care of patients and delivery of services. The conference places particular emphasis on sharing the work of early career researchers and in creating an encouraging environment to support delegates of all career stages.
The HSRPP 2024 conference will have a range of:
- thought-provoking keynote speakers.
- engaging workshops on the topics of sustainability, public and patient involvement, human factors, and exploratory research.
- interesting research presentations, in both oral and poster formats, encompassing a wide variety of research methods in areas including sustainability, patient empowerment, deprescribing, technology, pharmacy education, patient safety, mental health, polypharmacy, and many more.
The conference programme is available here: HSRPP 2024 - Conference Programme
Conference Fees & Registration
The conference registration portal is now open at this .
Registration Fees
|
|
9 March to 26 April 2024 |
| Standard |
€340 |
| Postgraduate Student |
€260 |
| Undergraduate Student |
€100 |
| Undergraduate Student 1-day option |
€50 |
| Practitioner 1-day option* |
€180 |
*We recognise that it can be challenging for practitioners (e.g. practising pharmacists, physicians, nurses) to get time off to attend conferences, so this 1-day option is available to practitioners who are unable to attend both days of the conference.
Additional discounts are available for the groups outlined below, so please contact hsrpp@ucc.ie to avail of these.
- Patient and public involvement (PPI) representatives.
- Students, people who are unwaged, and researchers from least developed or low to middle income countries. A list of eligible countries is available via this link. .
Conference Dinner Registration
The conference dinner will take place on the evening of Thursday 25 April 2024 in the Kingsley Hotel, Cork.
The registration fee for the conference dinner is €50, which will include live music.
Visiting ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork
(UCC) has a history of independent thinking, stretching back over 170 years. UCC is proud to be ranked in the top 1.1% of universities in the world, and every year it welcomes students from over 100 countries. When you are here, make sure you have a have a stroll around UCC’s beautiful campus.
UCC is only a short stroll from the heart of Cork’s city centre – home to a historic food market, museums, and plenty of cafes, restaurants, and lively pubs. , the starting point of Ireland’s . It is one of the friendliest cities in the world – voted third by Condé Nast Traveler’s annual reader survey in 2018. With plenty of for all visitors, Cork is a vibrant city known for providing a warm Irish welcome.
Take a walk through our photo gallery
Travel & Accommodation
ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork is situated near a number of hotels and guesthouses. A range of options are listed below.
Please note, we advise booking as soon as possible as demand for hotel rooms can be quite high.
| Accommodation | |
|---|---|
| This guesthouse is also located very near to the UCC campus and to the city centre. Please note that this is bed and breakfast accommodation and does not offer the full range of amenities of a hotel. | |
| This four-star hotel is located in close proximity to the main campus and is in walking distance of the meeting venue. | |
| This four-star guesthouse is a five-minute walk from the UCC campus and very near to the city centre also. Please note that this is bed and breakfast accommodation and does not offer the full range of amenities of a hotel. | |
| This three-star family-run guesthouse is located just 300 metres from UCC, with a less than ten minute walk from the city centre. Please note that this is bed and breakfast accommodation and does not offer the full range of amenities of a hotel. | |
| This three-star guesthouse is located on the banks of Cork’s River Lee, next to the main gates of UCC. Please note that this is bed and breakfast accommodation and does not offer the full range of amenities of a hotel. | |
| The newest hotel in Cork City. It is approx. 2.5km from the meeting venue. | |
| This four-star hotel is located in close proximity to the main campus and is in walking distance of the meeting venue. | |
| This four-star hotel is located in close proximity to the main UCC campus and within easy walking distance of the meeting venue. It is also within walking distance of the city centre. Special HSRPP2024 rate: €210.00 B&B per room. This rate is available until 4 March 2024. |
|
| This four-star hotel is in the heart of the city centre. It is approx. 2.5km from the meeting venue. | |
| This four-star hotel is in the heart of the city centre. It is approx. 2.5km from the meeting venue. |
Getting To & From Cork City
From Airports:
If you are flying into Cork Airport, there should be ample taxis available on the taxi rank to take you to your accommodation or to UCC. There are also bus services to the city centre which leave from outside the terminal building.
If you are flying into Dublin Airport and travelling on to Cork, we recommend taking an or from outside the Arrivals hall at the airport. Tickets (single or return) can be pre-booked, selecting Dublin Airport as point of origin and Cork Lower Glanmire Road as the destination.
The drop-off point is at Cork Lower Glanmire Road, right in the city centre in Cork (but not the main bus depot). While there is no taxi rank, there should be taxis available to flag down.
By Bus:
If you are arriving in Cork by bus, you will arrive at Parnell Place which is also in the city centre. There is a taxi rank available here if your accommodation is further away, or to get a taxi directly to UCC. Alternatively, the 205 city bus service runs via Parnell Place through the city to UCC via the Western Road.
By Train:
The train station in Cork is a little out from the city centre but there are taxis available at the rank and the 205 city bus service runs from the station through the city to UCC via the Western Road, where many of the hotel/guesthouses are located.
Taxis to and from accommodation and the meeting venue:
Taxis can be hailed on the street in the city centre, booked at hotel/guesthouse reception or you can contact a cab firm directly. Some names and numbers are: Satellite Taxis 00353-21-480 8080; ABC Cabs 00353-21- 4961961; Cork Taxi Co-Op 00353-21-4272222
Our Keynote Speakers
Barry Melia
Barry is a Principal Pharmacist at Public Health Scotland, Scotland's national public health body. His professional background includes community pharmacy, primary care, public health, and academia. He provides leadership in medicines intelligence, utilisation, vaccination and pharmaceutical research. He supervises a number of public health-related postgraduate students at the Usher Institute, ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Edinburgh. He is a recipient of the John Last medal. His research interests include ecotoxicology of pharmaceuticals in the environment with a focus on wastewater epidemiology, the use of "Big Data" to explore real world effectiveness of pharmaceuticals, whole system modelling and life course analysis.
Barry was the inaugural in the United Kingdom and is currently the co-Chair of the EAHP Working Group on Environmental Sustainability. He is also the co-Chair of the NHS Scotland Pharmaceutical Public Health Network Specialist Interest Group.
Barry studied Pharmacy at the Robert Gordon ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, Aberdeen and qualified as a pharmacist in 1999. In 2021, he obtained a Master of Public Health at the ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Edinburgh with research exploring the use of national data sets to predict environmental pollutant concentrations of pharmaceuticals in wastewater.
Carmel Hughes
Carmel is Professor of Primary Care Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã Belfast. She was the first pharmacist to have been appointed to a Harkness Fellowship in Healthcare Policy, the only pharmacist to receive a Primary Care Career Scientist Award and a former Cochrane Fellow. Her research interests centre on prescribing in older people, intervention development and evidence-based healthcare. She is a Senior Editor for the journal Pilot and Feasibility Studies. She is a Trustee of the Dunhill Medical Trust, a charity which funds research focusing on older people and she also chairs the Trust’s Research Grants Committee. She is a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research funding panel. Carmel is currently a member of the International Scientific Council (ISC) of the Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI,) the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences External Advisory Board, the International Advisory Board of the School for Primary Care Research (funded by NIHR) and a non-Executive Director of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She has been a member of the United Kingdom (UK) Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 Sub-panel 3.
View Carmel's for more information.
Debi Bhattacharya
I am Professor of Behavioural Medicine at the ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Leicester and a primary care pharmacist. I lead a portfolio of research applying behavioural science to medicine-related challenges. My team are highly experienced in delivering high quality research spanning the full spectrum from diagnosing the nature of the problem through to designing targeted interventions and large-scale testing in definitive trials. Our work includes both patient and practitioner behaviour change with two key strands being supporting deprescribing and medication adherence. Current research programmes that I am leading on these topics include:
- which is a five year, £2.4M NIHR funded research programme to design and test a deprescribing intervention across 24 hospitals in England.
- which is a five year, £2.7M NIHR funded research programme to design and test a medication adherence intervention across 38 medical practices in England
I am also passionate about research capacity building to secure the future of evidence-based healthcare. I am currently leading the NIHR incubator for pharmacy professionals which is three years of funding to build research capacity amongst the pharmacy profession.