When have e-prescriptions become mandatory in Europe?
This week HBI looks at when e-prescriptions became mandatory across most of Europe’s big healthcare markets. Surprisingly, France and Germany look to be years behind other ‘less developed’ healthcare systems.
Data and information on the use of e-prescriptions in Europe is currently being added to HBI’s digital health report, alongside new market information on telemonitoring, digital therapeutics, electronic health records and other digital health subsectors.
The graph shows when electronic prescriptions have or will become mandatory in different European markets. In many, e-prescriptions are widely used, reaching 95%+ of all, at least a couple of years before the legal obligation kickstarts.
France, Germany, Russia and Sweden clearly lag behind the rest of Europe. France has only just started to use e-prescriptions, with the majority still being paper, and will take another three years to make the system mandatory. Germany is the same, it started in July 2021, but hopes to make them compulsory next year.
The Swedish system was meant to kick in October of this year but has faced delays.
It is also important to note that there are other markets where e-prescriptions are often used but patients can still easily request a paper document. Hungary has had them available since 2017 and Ireland de-regulated them in mid-2020 but they are not mandatory in either market.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Rachel Lewis or call 0207 183 3779.
