Now You Can Buy Prescription Drugs with an E-Prescription in All Baltic Countries
Starting today, residents of Estonia can purchase prescription drugs in Lithuanian pharmacies using their e-prescription, and vice versa. This means that the cross-border e-prescription service now covers Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, allowing patients to conveniently obtain their medications from pharmacies in any of these countries.
The expansion of the cross-border e-prescription service is a significant step in simplifying everyday life. For instance, if someone temporarily works, studies, or frequently travels to another Baltic country, they no longer need to worry if they are running out of essential medications. If an Estonian family has an unexpected extended stay in Lithuania, they can easily buy their prescription medications from a local pharmacy using their e-prescription issued in Estonia. Similarly, Lithuanian residents can now purchase medications prescribed by their local doctors in Estonian pharmacies.
"In March, Latvia joined the cross-border exchange of e-prescriptions and health data, and over 1,000 patients have already purchased their prescriptions in another country. From today, prescriptions can also be mutually exchanged between Estonia and Lithuania. Lithuania is now the thirteenth country with which we have started exchanging health data, either through e-prescriptions or general health data. So far, the majority of cross-border prescriptions have been exchanged between Finnish and Estonian patients, with the number of prescriptions exceeding 40,000," commented Nele Labi, Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
"Collaboration with other European countries in the development of cross-border health data exchange and e-prescription services continues at a rapid pace. According to the current schedule, the next countries to join the service are Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria. We are working closely with them to launch the services there soon. This will further expand patients' opportunities to use their health data conveniently and securely in various European countries, ensuring continuous access to treatment regardless of national borders," added Tõnis Jaagus, Head of the Health Domain at the Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre (TEHIK).
The dispensing of prescription drugs in Lithuania operates the same way as in Estonia: at the pharmacy, you need to present your ID card or passport, after which the pharmacist can access the e-prescriptions based on your personal identification code.
Additional Information
In addition to Lithuania, Estonians can now purchase their prescription medications in Spain, Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Finland, and the Czech Republic. Health data can already be exchanged with 10 countries: Spain, the Netherlands, Croatia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, France, and the Czech Republic.
In Estonia, TEHIK is responsible for the functioning of cross-border e-prescription and data exchange services. The list of countries connected to the service and the latest information can be found on the TEHIK website: https://www.tehik.ee/en/cross-border-data-exchange