What happened?
The digital prescription, whose deployment was launched in 2022, must be adopted by all health professionals from 1is January 2025. The account is not there. As for the doctors, only “ 4% of prescriptions written currently » are dematerialized, according to estimates from the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF) adopted last June. They issued 2.2 million e-prescriptions per month between December 2023 and May 2024, according to Health Insurance. Above all, most hospitals, the main prescribers of expensive drugs, still do not use this device. The same goes for teleconsultation services. As for pharmacies, between 5,000 and 7,000 do not have a QR code reader.
The e-prescription offers “ many advantages : facilitated exchanges between health professionals, authenticity of the prescription guaranteed, simplified access to prescriptions and made more reliable by the systematic use of prescription assistance software, making it possible to strengthen the fight against iatrogenics”, argues health insurance on its website.
Key dates
- 1is December : the secure digital prescription must be put in place for the prescription and delivery of medications based on tramadol or codeine. A moratorium was requested by the unions.
- December 31: the obligation to use digital prescriptions applies to all doctors and pharmacists.
What does this change for pharmacists?
E-prescription has “no impact on the pharmacist’s activity”, says Health Insurance. In addition to “facilitating exchanges between the doctor and pharmacist and limiting the risk of being confronted with false prescriptions”, it “simplifies the processing circuit for supporting documents: the digital prescription transmitted directly from your management software pharmacy certificate serves as proof of health insurance (…). At the same time, pharmacists continue to use Scor (scanning of prescriptions) for prescriptions without a QR code.”
Tramadol and codeine: a moratorium on digital prescription
In order to limit the risks of misuse and dependence on tramadol and codeine, as well as the issuance of false prescriptions, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) initially decided that from 1is December, their prescription should be made on a secure prescription, specifying in full the dosage, posology and duration of treatment. If the secure nature of the paper prescription is proven, this is not the case for the digital prescription. In fact, the QR code is easily duplicated and 5,000 to 7,000 pharmacies are not equipped with a scanner that allows reading. The moratorium requested by the unions was accepted and the implementation of this measure is postponed until 1is mars 2025.
Health