The electronic prescription will continue to be valid until the end of the year. A new civil protection ordinance extends its use until 31 December 2022. As reported in recent days by various scientific societies, such as Fimmg (Italian Federation of general practitioners) and Fimp (Italian Federation of pediatricians), the end of the state emergency threatened to nullify even the little positive that the pandemic had entailed, bringing patients and caregivers back to flocking to doctors’ offices to collect the paper format – at a time, among other things, in which Covid-19 cases are returning to grow.
The pandemic and the consequent decision to call a state of emergency in our country had small positive implications at the organizational level. These include the possibility for general practitioners and pediatricians of free choice to be able to provide patients and caregivers with the electronic prescription number (Nre) even through a simple text message or messaging app, as well as via ordinary e-mail. Code in hand, for two years citizens have been able to collect their drugs without being obliged to retrieve the paper memo from their doctor to show to the pharmacist.
You can not go back
The system had been implemented quickly at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 (the Cura-Italia decree) precisely to meet the need to move from home as little as possible, to avoid crowds to contain epidemic waves and the overload of assistance services and hospitals. .
This possibility should have expired with the end of the state of emergency on 31 March 2022, but thanks to a providential ordinance of the Civil Protection (see in particular article 2) the use of the dematerialized reminder is extended to 31 December 2022.
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“It would have been crazy – he comments Antonio D’Avino, president of Fimp. – Fortunately, the institutions, Minister Roberto Speranza, listened to us and understood the difficulties that a return to the past would entail for health workers and families. As a pediatrician, I can testify to the advantages that the dematerialized reminder has brought and entails for parents, especially for working ones “.
The return to paper format would mean, in fact, having to respect the clinic hours even for repeated prescriptions, waiting even for a long time in the waiting room for one’s turn. “This increases the risk of both bringing the virus inside the clinics and then taking it home, in a moment, moreover, in which the numbers of coronavirus infections are rising in the pediatric range”.
The electronic health record
As foreseen by the ordinance, the Ministry of Health will now provide for the implementation of the various alternative forms of delivery to the paper memo of the electronic prescription. In the fully operational system, documents – not only drug prescriptions but also prescriptions for specialist visits – should be uploaded and available to citizens in the Electronic Health Record (ESF) or even just by providing their health card at the pharmacy (as already happens in Veneto and Trentino). The problem that still exists is that not all regions are up to date in implementing the system.