EU Ministers and MEPs have reached an agreement on cross border healthcare rules which will pave the way for safer cross border prescriptions. The new cross border healthcare directive aims to give patients more legal certainty about their rights to seek healthcare in another EU country and to reinforce cooperation between EU countries.

The new rules will also improve cross border pharmaceutical care by ensuring that prescriptions are recognised where the medicine in question is available and authorised for sale in the country concerned. In addition, pharmacists will now have new tools to better understand cross border prescriptions including the ability to identify more easily the prescribed medicine and the doctors and patients involved.

Please see the European Commission’s information sheet with questions and answers on cross border healthcare for more information.