The EU Commission is set to introduce guidelines to make it easier for prescriptions to be recognised in other countries.
If you are travelling around the region or even moving to an EU country you need to be aware of the rules regarding the transportation of medicines across borders. Earlier in December the European Commission adopted EU-wide rulesregarding the details that must be included on a prescription. It is expected the changes will be implemented by 25th October 2013.
The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, Tonio Borg described the new rules as “essential to ensure patients’ rights to access high quality treatment” across the EU. He added, “These rules will help secure that patients travelling to another Member State get the medicine they need in the country where they are thanks to clear cross-border prescriptions.”
With the current diversity of prescriptions around the EU it is estimated over half of patients would have trouble with the prescription being recognised in another country. The total number of cross-border prescriptions is estimated to be around 2.3 million a year, which translates to between 0.02% and 0.04% of all prescriptions in the EU.
While this figure is low, the new rules would make things significantly easier for a range of people. For example, for patients with chronic diseases wishing to travel to another country, for patients living in border regions or smaller Member States for whom filling out a cross-border prescription is a necessity and for patients with a rare disease, where the best expertise can be found across a border.
The new rules cover a clear set of descriptive elements to help identify the prescribers, patients and the medication itself. The guidelines however, do not cover the language, appearance or format of the prescription.