Teaching Pharmacies

Building Classrooms in the Real World

Over the past ten years, the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy has built robust collaborations with various institutions and stakeholders across the local and international healthcare sectors to advance professional education, service innovation, and practice-based research.

Riding on the extensive network and robust rapport with our partners, the Department extends teaching and learning spaces to a variety of practice settings such as community pharmacies and hospitals, where student can gain hands-on experiences of diverse aspects of pharmacy practice.

Exclusive Teaching Pharmacies for HKU Students

Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong 港怡醫院

Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong (GHK) is a 500-bed, multi-specialty private hospital with over 35 clinical specializations. As an exclusive clinical partner of The University of Hong Kong (HKU), GHK offers clinical training to students of HKU Faculty of Medicine. All clinical teaching programmes at GHK are designed and run by HKU and taught by university teachers. Apart from classroom lectures, GHK provides an additional teaching ground for HKU pharmacy students, allowing students to receive training exposures in hospital setting, including outpatient and inpatient pharmacies.

The pharmacy department at GHK is responsible for providing a comprehensive range of pharmaceutical services for the hospital. These services include 24-hour pharmacy services, aseptic cytotoxic reconstitution, pharmacy automation and decentralised medication management, drug information, and pharmacy clinical interventions. The experiential training at GHK provides unique opportunities for HKU students to strengthen and apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the BPharm programme and to observe and practice professional behaviours and values. Students will gain a wide spectrum of pharmacy exposure and experience and be prepared for future professional roles.

HKU-Shenzhen Hospital 香港大學深圳醫院

HKU-Shenzhen Hospital serves as an important teaching hospital for HKU pharmacy students, providing a valuable hospital-based experiential learning environment that complements classroom teaching. Students gain experiential learning that differs from the local setting by engaging with a distinct healthcare system, patient population, and pharmacy practice model. They encounter diverse prescribing patterns, different drug formularies, and alternative approaches to clinical decision making, which broaden their understanding of pharmacy practice beyond the local Hong Kong context. This cross border exposure enhances their adaptability, cultural competence, and ability to operate in varied healthcare environments, thereby better preparing them for future roles in an increasingly globalised pharmacy profession.

HKUMed Community Pharmacy 香港大學社區藥房

HKUMed Community Pharmacy, located on the HKUMed campus adjacent to Queen Mary Hospital, provides our pharmacy students with a dedicated teaching community pharmacy setting that is managed and taught by academic staff from the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy. As the first university run teaching community pharmacy in Hong Kong, it offers students regular, structured experiential learning opportunities in real world community pharmacy practice, guided by our own pharmacists who integrate teaching, patient care, and interprofessional collaboration on a daily basis. Through frequent, close contact with these in house instructors, students develop core competencies in prescription dispensing, medication counselling, minor ailment management, and continuity of care, while also gaining familiarity with the roles of community pharmacists in primary healthcare and interprofessional service delivery.

Health In Action Community Pharmacy 醫護行社區藥房

Health In Action

Health In Action (HIA) is a non-governmental organisation which promotes health equity in societies through the cycle of “service, research, social innovation and incubation”. With a transdisciplinary team of nurses, dietitian, social workers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, health coaches, community health and public health officers, HIA serves underprivileged communities primarily in Kwai Tsing District. HIA Community Pharmacy is not-for-profit and provides accessible and affordable medicines and pharmacy services to the general public in HKSAR.

As the first teaching pharmacy in HKSAR, HIA Community Pharmacy has established a cohesive and supportive teaching and learning environment for HKU students. At the teaching pharmacy, students works in a transdisciplinary team of nurses, dietitian, physiotherapists, pharmacists, social workers, public health specialists and health coaches to gain hands-on experience and perspectives in interprofessional collaborative practice that promotes health equity through community capacity building.

A-Lively Community Pharmacy 良躍社區藥房

Aberdeen Kai-Fong Welfare Association

A Lively Community Pharmacy (良躍社區藥房), operated by Aberdeen Kai fong Welfare Association as a non profit community pharmacy in Wah Fu Estate, serves as a valued teaching site that provides HKU pharmacy students with authentic, community based experiential learning under the supervision of registered pharmacists. Students gain hands on experience in dispensing prescription medications, managing minor ailment cases, delivering medication counselling, and participating in health education and outreach activities, all within a setting that emphasises self managed health and primary care services for long term patients, low income individuals, and older adults. Through regular contact with in house pharmacists who lead both clinical service and teaching, students develop professional communication skills, deepen their understanding of community pharmacy operations, and appreciate the role of non profit pharmacy services in promoting equitable access to medicines and health information.