The Medicinal Products Act stipulates that, where a hospital pharmacy is not operated at a healthcare institution operated under the Health Service Act, a pharmacist shall, among other things, be responsible for procuring medicines, for their storage, for keeping the required records and for supervising the use of the medicines.

If the institution does not have a pharmacist in its service, the management of the institution shall come to an agreement with an external pharmacy licence holder, pharmacist or hospital pharmacy for services that include responsibility for procuring medicines and supervising their use.

The Icelandic Medicines Agency (IMA) has issued guidelines for healthcare institutions concerning agreements on pharmaceutical services. They set out the items that laws and regulations require such agreements to contain. A copy of the agreement on pharmaceutical services shall be submitted to IMA, which will then issue the healthcare institution concerned with an authorisation to order medicines from wholesalers.