Health – Cross-border Prescriptions
Summary
- You can legally take your prescription to a northern pharmacy across the border and get it filled there
- You will have to pay
– a handling charge and
– the full price of each medicine or product
More details
If you have a medical prescription from a doctor in the European Economic Area (EEA), the prescription is valid in all other EEA countries if it contains certain information. The EEA includes the member states of the European Union as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
A medical prescription written by a doctor registered in the United Kingdom (UK) continues to be valid in Ireland, if it contains certain information. Likewise, a medical prescription written by a doctor registered in Ireland continues to be valid in the UK, if it contains certain information. This continues to be the case following the UK’s departure from the EU.
- Ask your doctor to specify the active ingredient or generic name and NOT the brand name, or else state “or the generic equivalent” on the prescription for each item e.g. fluoxetine instead of Prozac or salbutamol instead of Ventolin
- Some items cannot be dispensed across the border, usually controlled drugs, such as morphine.
- A medical prescription is not valid in Ireland if it is issued by a UK-registered doctor, via an online service, to a person living in Ireland.
- For more information see Citizens Information – Cross-border prescriptions
The legal aspect
Directive 2011/24/EU on patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare [PDF] clarifies the rules on access to healthcare in another EU country, including reimbursement.
In this Directive the European Commission is called upon to adopt measures to facilitate the recognition of prescriptions issued in another Member State. These cross border prescriptions relate to medicinal products and medical devices prescribed in one Member State and dispensed in another.
Citizens in the European Union (EU) have the right to carry along or to receive a reasonable amount of medicines and medical devices in foreign Member States, obtained lawfully for personal use.
Source: See the EUROPA – Press release – Europe for patients: Common rules on medical prescriptions when travelling to another EU country
From the Irish Parliament:
- Written answer to question in the Dáil, 18/09/2013
- Seanad statement, 24/09/2013 – EU Directive on Patients Rights in Cross-Border Health Care
In addition, doctors are advised to avoid brand names e.g. neurofen and use the generic name e.g. ibuprofen instead.
The UK NHS Confederation, in their comprehensive article Recognising medical prescriptions across borders states:
“The implementing Directive states that medicinal products should be indicated using their common name in order to facilitate the correct identification of products which are marketed under different brand names across the EU, and of products that arenot marketed in all EU member states. The common name shall be either the International Non-proprietary name recommended by the WHO or, if such a name does not exist, the usual common name. Medical devices do not have such common names and therefore the prescriptions should include direct contact details of the prescriber which enable the dispensing professional to enquire about the device.”
What this means in practice
If you have a prescription from your doctor in the south of Ireland, you can travel north of the border and exchange it for the specified medication in a pharmacy. You will have to pay for the medicine(s) and also a handling charge. In reality, this generally works out cheaper than going to your local pharmacy in the south.
Pharmacies in the north often dispense non-branded versions of medicines. You may be familiar with the brand name but not the active ingredient or the generic name. For example, a popular brand of statin is Lipitor, but it is likely that a pharmacist in the north would give you a box of atorvastatin, which is exactly the same medication, but in different packaging, and quite probably a lot cheaper than the branded version. Check with your doctor when he/she is writing out the prescription – they can specify the branded name but add “or generic equivalent” which allows the pharmacist in the north to provide the non-branded version.
Check that all the medication/drugs you need are available in the north. Some controlled drugs, such as morphine cannot be dispensed with a cross-border prescription. The websites of some northern pharmacies are given below – telephone the branch in the town or city you plan to visit. Most will be happy to give you advice
27 May 2016, Source: Independent.ie
‘My medication costs €144 a month in Republic – but I can get six-month supply for €50 in North’
A cancer patient from Cork is able to save more than €1,600 a year by buying his medicine in a Newry pharmacy.
“The price difference is astounding. For a retiree like me, this is a huge annual saving.”
He said this is the generic version of the branded drug Casodex which he was taking initially.
“I cannot understand why a generic drug is so expensive here,” he said.
Under the high-tech drugs scheme, the HSE buys the drug and pays the pharmacist a monthly care fee for the patient rather than a dispensing fee.
The price gap is another example of the rip-off rates which patients and the taxpayer have to shell out for medicines here.
Talks to reach a better deal on branded products have come to a standstill.
The rate of increase in the medicines bill of €1.7bn threatens to spiral.
The HSE has separate agreements with branded and generic drug suppliers.
Commenting on the price difference, Shane O Sullivan who founded the cut-price pharmacy Healthwave in Dundrum, said it is another example of how the Government must ensure reimbursement for medicines is reformed.
“The main problem here is that this drug is classed as high-tech. It should be re-classified from high-tech.
“No matter what pharmacy you go to in the Republic, they have to charge a private patient €144 because it is high-tech.
“The vast majority of these drugs cost around €1,000 a month. But this is an example of one that is too expensive.”
Darragh O’Loughlin, head of the Irish Pharmacy Union, said the reality is that the UK has one of the biggest medicines’ markets in Europe with almost the lowest prices.
“The prices in the Republic are coming down but realistically they will never be as low as or lower than the UK because our market is too small.
“They are buying for 60 million people and the HSE is buying for 4.5 million.”
The price of generic drugs in Ireland is now reaching the European average.
“Realistically, if we can be average price, it is as much as we can expect,” he added.
Page last checked: January 2022
