Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Markets and Companies, Medicine

Finnish e-prescriptions will become valid in Estonia in December, Finnish newspaper Karjalainen was quoted as reporting by Finnish news agency STT on Wednesday. Estonian digital prescriptions can be used in Finland next year.

STT added that Finland is also planning to start similar cooperation with Sweden.

Cross-border usage of digital prescriptions is slowly starting to spread all over the EU, Pirjo Ikavalko, official of the subject area, told Karjalainen. She stressed that medicines affecting the central nervous system, however, remain outside the scope of cooperation.

Cross-border digital prescriptions facilitate the lives of people who work abroad and travel often, STT noted.

Meanwhile, it could also increase medical tourism as medicinal products in Estonia are cheaper than in Finland, the Finnish news agency reports.

In Mid-September, the Riigikogu social affairs committee initiated a bill to amend the Health Services Organization Act and the Medicinal Products Act which will give authorized agencies the right to exchange digital prescriptions and people's medical records with other member states of the European Union. The chairman of the social affairs committee, Helmen Kutt, said that the data exchange platform will relay data from the health information system and the prescription center to another country, and from another country to a health service provider or a pharmacy in Estonia. Readiness already exists to exchange data with Finland, Portugal and Croatia.