The Ministry of Health, which repealed the validity of paper prescriptions sent via web, email or WhatsApp to request treatment in the pharmacy this Monday, specified that the provision is due to the fact that “the epidemiological and health situation is very different from that of the moment in which the resolution that is repealed was issued” and that “the prescription of medicines must be carried out with all the relative safety mechanisms”.
Digital prescriptions: it will no longer be possible to submit a photo of a medical prescription
More
Thus, the health portfolio has listed the “keys” of the provision, implemented in resolution no. 3622/2022, published today in the Official Journal, which repeals resolution 696 issued in 2020.
The resolution repealed the possibility, within the context of the ASPO established by the coronavirus pandemic, and exceptionally, of prescribing drugs via SMS or web messaging applications, reads a note from the Ministry.
Salud clarified that “digital and/or electronic prescriptions (with electronic or digital signature) will continue to be accepted as hitherto”.
the keys
- Why is the repeal due?: Because the epidemiological and health situation is very different from the one at the time the repeal resolution was issued.
- During ASPO, the exceptional acceptance of physical prescription photos was taken with the aim of preventing the circulation of people in need of medicines, thus reducing the transmission of the virus and the risk of contagion.
- Once the emergency has been overcome, it is appropriate to return to the previous mechanisms, which guarantee greater safety, because they are less subject to forgery and favor the responsible use of medicines, as agreed with the Ministers of Health of the whole country in the Federal Council of Health, of 4 October this year.
- The prescription of medicinal products must be carried out with all the related safety mechanisms: the prescriptions must guarantee the identity of the patients and doctors and the prescribed medicinal product must be authorized by the ANMAT, be identified by its generic name and be part of a program scientifically validated therapeutic indication in the rational use of drugs.
- In turn, the pharmacies carry out the relevant checks for the dispense, generating the records required by law and also respecting the traceability of the drug delivered.
- The derogation mechanisms that are repealed with this resolution did not provide the necessary guarantees for compliance with these precepts.
- In short: after the ASPO, the photos of the prescriptions sent by email or WhatsApp to buy a medicine are no longer accepted.
- As before the pandemic, the digital and/or telematic prescriptions accepted are those provided with an electronic or digital signature, as established by the Digital Prescription Law, currently being implemented, and by the Electronic Signature Law.
The Ministry of Health clarifies that the resolution signed today does not in any way cancel the use of electronic and/or digital prescriptions with electronic and/or digital signature, which in any case remain fully valid.
– Ministry of Health of the Nation (@msalnacion) December 27, 2022
It is expected that, from the regulation of this law, the number of suppliers who have this service will be expanded and, therefore, the accessibility of patients to the drug will be simplified, concludes the information from the Ministry of Health.
With information from Telam.
IG
