How long is the prescription valid? Some stop working after a few days

A prescription, i.e. a doctor’s written order, under which a patient can buy the prescribed medications at a pharmacy, has an expiry date. While many people think that a prescription expires after 30 days, there are exceptions. Some of them can be realized up to 7 days from issue. Others are valid for up to 365 days.

Pursuant to the applicable regulations, a paper prescription is valid for 30 days from the date it is issued, or from the date of its completion, which should be noted by the doctor on the prescription in the “from date” field. Since 2018, it is possible to issue e-prescriptions, and in their case the expiry date is still different.

How much are e-prescriptions important?

E-Prescriptions are valid for 7, 30, 120 or 365 days. It depends both on the specific expiry date of some drugs and on the doctor’s notes.

The least amount of time, i.e. 7 days, is to buy antibiotics. Next in line are 30-day e-prescriptions, the completion date of which may be extended. If the doctor did not enter the “from date” date, it is 30 days from the issue, but if he indicated that the prescription can be purchased from a specific date, then the execution time (30 days) is counted from the indicated date, not from the date of issue. E-prescription for immunological preparations will be valid for 120 days.

E-recipe it can also be valid for 365 days. They will receive such chronically ill patients who take certain medications on a permanent basis. However, the doctor must note on it that the expiry date is one year.

«If your e-prescription is valid for one year, you should still buy the first package before 30 days from the date of issue. If you do this after 30 days, your pharmacist will dispense you a smaller amount in proportion to the number of days since your ePrescription was issued or your “redeem from” date. When you buy more packages, no matter when you come for them, the pharmacist will no longer reduce the amount of the drug »- reports the portal patient.gov.pl.

You can buy the medicine for 180 days at a time, but it is not possible to buy it for 365 days.

«If your doctor has issued you an e-prescription for 365 days, make sure to write down the dosing instructions on it. If he has not specified a dosage, the 365-day ePrescription must be redeemed within 30 days. If you buy a given medication prescribed by a doctor in more than 10 packages, for example, in installments, the purchases must be made in one and the same pharmacy » we read on the portal.

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