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are foreign medical prescriptions valid in ireland?

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  • 31-12-2009 12:17am
    #1
    waheyyy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 89 ✭✭


    specifically, prescriptions from the uk? just wondering if it'd be possible to have a prescription from uk but retrieve the actual medicine in ireland


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    #2
    madliz
    Registered Users Posts: 16 ✭madliz


    i would say they are not, unless you are living in the uk and are here on holiday or have just moved over.

    I moved in march and my first prescription from the doc here in april was claimed for under my nhs number, even though i had already surrended my health card to my local health board on the day we moved.


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    #3
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,285 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    You need to be a Irish Republic registered doctor to prescribe prescription medications in the Irish Republic. Similarly- you need to be a UK registered doctor to prescribe UK prescriptions in the UK. In some very rare cases a pharmacy may accept an Irish prescription in the UK, or vice versa, without realising it may not be valid in the jurisdiction- this is rare however.


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    #4
    madliz
    Registered Users Posts: 16 ✭madliz


    in addition to what i put above, it seems that if you have your nhs number, the pharmacies here can check via computer/internet what your current meds are etc, so can issue things if you run out while on holiday!


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    #5
    locum-motion
    Registered Users Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055783157
    Waheyyy asked the same question in Health Sciences. Follow the above link for the correct answer.
    waheyyy wrote: »
    specifically, prescriptions from the uk? just wondering if it'd be possible to have a prescription from uk but retrieve the actual medicine in ireland
    madliz wrote: »
    i would say they are not, unless you are living in the uk and are here on holiday or have just moved over.

    I moved in march and my first prescription from the doc here in april was claimed for under my nhs number, even though i had already surrended my health card to my local health board on the day we moved.

    Madliz, despite what you 'would say', prescriptions from the UK written by a doctor who is registered in the UK, ARE valid in Ireland.
    smccarrick wrote: »
    You need to be a Irish Republic registered doctor to prescribe prescription medications in the Irish Republic. Similarly- you need to be a UK registered doctor to prescribe UK prescriptions in the UK. In some very rare cases a pharmacy may accept an Irish prescription in the UK, or vice versa, without realising it may not be valid in the jurisdiction- this is rare however.

    Sorry, Shane, you are wrong too. See next post for details.
    madliz wrote: »
    in addition to what i put above, it seems that if you have your nhs number, the pharmacies here can check via computer/internet what your current meds are etc, so can issue things if you run out while on holiday!

    Wrong again, Madliz. Pharmacies in Ireland do not have access to anyones PMR (Patient Medication Record) other than their own patients. Similarly, pharmacies in the UK only have access to their own patient's PMRs. There's no central database of PMR's that any pharmacy can access. The closest thing to an exception to this was a system that Boots were trying out, whereby if you went into any branch of Boots in the UK (AND brought your Boots card with you) they could check what you had got in other Boots branches, but only other Boots branches. AFAIK, it was never extended to Ireland, and I'm not sure if they're even doing it in the UK anymore.


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    #6
    locum-motion
    Registered Users Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    smccarrick wrote: »
    You need to be a Irish Republic registered doctor to prescribe prescription medications in the Irish Republic.
    Technically speaking, correct.
    smccarrick wrote: »
    Similarly- you need to be a UK registered doctor to prescribe UK prescriptions in the UK.
    Tecnically speaking, also correct.

    However, a prescription written in the UK, by a UK-registered prescriber, is valid in the ROI. (this is the situation the OP was asking about)
    Similarly, a prescription written in the ROI, by a ROI-registered prescriber, is valid in the UK.

    A UK-registered prescriber who happens to be on holidays in Cork, for example, cannot write a prescription while s/he's there and have it honoured in the local pharmacy, though. That being said, assuming s/he has used his/her own prescription pad with UK address on it, who's to know where it was actually written?
    smccarrick wrote: »
    In some very rare cases a pharmacy may accept an Irish prescription in the UK, or vice versa, without realising it may not be valid in the jurisdiction- this is rare however.

    Given that your premise that the prescription is invalid is incorrect, it therefore follows that the pharmacist can't "accept it without realising it may not be valid". If the pharmacist accepts it, it's because it IS valid!


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