The End of the Onerous Rule in Pharmacies. New Rules Coming in 2025

• According to the announcements of the Ministry of Health, the rule regarding prescriptions will be abolished this year
• After the changes, patients will be able to fill their entire prescription in different pharmacies
• A prescription for a free drug can now also be issued by a doctor who administers the drug in a private practice

The parliamentary interpellation on annual prescriptions was submitted to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Digital Affairs. As the authors of the letter remind us, the current system forces the patient to fill the entire prescription in the same pharmacy where they started taking the medication.

- A patient who has started filling a prescription in one pharmacy, when a given medicine is no longer available there, is forced to wait for it to be delivered, instead of being able to buy it in another pharmacy. The current system does not provide for a situation in which one prescription, e.g. for a dozen or so packages of medicine, can be filled in different pharmacies. This leads to the patient having to return to the doctor to find another solution, and this is associated with an unnecessary waste of time for both the patient and the doctor, who, instead of focusing on treatment, has to perform unnecessary administrative activities - we read in the interpellation.

At the same time, they point out problems that also arise, for example, in situations where a person changes their place of residence or a pharmacy is closed down. The MPs ask the Ministry of Health about the planned changes to the rules for the implementation of annual prescriptions.

- At the request of the Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna, work has begun on the implementation of e-prescriptions in various pharmacies. The implementation date of this service is planned for 2025. Due to the fact that this topic is socially important, the preparation of this solution has been given an urgent status - replied Deputy Minister Wojciech Konieczny on behalf of the Ministry of Health.

The deputy head of the Ministry of Health admitted that currently medicines written on an e-prescription can be purchased in various pharmacies, but once one of the medicines (one of the items) prescribed on an e-prescription (on which several different medicines are written) is purchased, the remaining packages of a given medicine can only be purchased in the pharmacy where the fulfillment of a given e-prescription was initiated.

- A Prescription Fulfillment Document (DRR) is issued for each e-prescription. If a pharmacist dispenses part of the packages of a given medicine, they enter the status of partial fulfillment for that item in the DRR. Then, the fulfillment of such an e-prescription must be completed in the same pharmacy. The adoption of such assumptions does not result from legislative restrictions, but from difficulties related to the potential possibility of fulfilling a single e-prescription document in different pharmacies that appear in the case of dispensing substitutes or other packages of a given medicine - we read.

The Deputy Minister also added that the risk of making an error when dispensing a drug by different pharmacies translates directly into the safety of the patient and makes it more difficult to make corrections in pharmacies.

- Introducing the possibility of fulfilling a single e-prescription in different pharmacies without a thorough and multi-aspect analysis could have a negative effect on the prescription fulfillment process itself, as well as the safety of patients themselves - emphasized Wojciech Konieczny in his response.

In addition, he announced the establishment in September 2023 of a Team for the Prescription and Fulfillment of Prescriptions for Ready-Made and Prescribed Medicines, and on September 23, 2024, a report on the Team's work was published.

The team was established by order of the Minister of Health of September 19, 2023, and its tasks were related to the assessment of existing solutions in the area of ​​prescription and prescription fulfillment, identification of problems resulting from them and attempts to modify them or create alternative solutions in the following specific areas:

• prescribing and dispensing prescriptions for ready-made and prescription drugs;
• guidelines for the functioning of the pharmacy formula and its financing;
• solutions regarding the functioning of system tools facilitating the prescription and implementation of prescriptions by authorized persons;
• developing the basis for a system to monitor and control over-prescription and over-consumption of medications;
• legislative changes regarding formulary and prescription drugs.

- The Team's work was attended by a wide range of representatives of various environments, involved in the issues of prescription (representatives of the community of pharmacists, doctors, including National Consultants, and nurses and midwives), implementation (representatives of the community of pharmacists, patients, producers of pharmaceutical raw materials), representatives of public institutions (the e-Health Centre, the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Health, the National Health Fund, the Patient's Rights Ombudsman) and employers (pharmacies, pharmaceutical wholesalers, the Association of Healthcare Employers) and the academic community - assured Deputy Minister Konieczny.

The subject of the Team’s work was:

• automation of the process of selecting the level of payment for the product in the reimbursement system,
• the issue of the functioning of prescription machines,
• organization and model of financing of pharmacy formula,
• additional patient rights,
• reorganization of prescription rules.

The Deputy Minister also recalled that the most important proposals for changes were collected by the Team in the form of a table, which indicated 48 detailed areas of interest, and the report drew attention to the need for simultaneous implementation of the presented proposals due to their mutual interaction.

Let us recall: On February 14, 2025, an amendment to the Act on health care services financed from public funds and certain other acts entered into force.

In accordance with the changes:

• Prescriptions for free medicines for patients - children up to 18 years of age and seniors over 65 - can be issued by all doctors, regardless of whether they have a contract with the National Health Fund or not, i.e. also within private practice.

Previously, only a doctor who had a contract with the National Health Fund in one of three areas - primary health care, outpatient specialist care or hospital treatment - could issue prescriptions for seniors and children. Such rights are also held by a so-called retired doctor who issues a prescription for himself or his loved ones, as well as some nurses.

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