Doctors and paramedics without a workplace at medical institutions will be able to prescribe medicine to themselves

The Health Inspectorate has announced that doctors and paramedics (feldshers) who hold valid registration in the Register of Medical Persons and Medical Support Persons will now be able to prescribe medicine for personal use even if they do not work at a medical institution. This is made possible by amendments to Cabinet of Ministers regulations on prescription forms and prescription circulation, approved by the government in August.

Such prescriptions, marked "pro me" or "ad usum proprium" instead of a patient's name, may be used only for personal use — they cannot be issued for family members, patients or other people. A doctor may write no more than 50 such prescriptions within a 12-month period, while a paramedic may write no more than 30.

How forms are issued

Prescription forms for doctors and paramedics who do not work at a medical institution are issued by the National Health Service (NHS), which then informs the Health Inspectorate. Upon receiving this information, the inspectorate records "Recipe pro me" as the workplace in the person's register entry — a note applied only to those who have received such forms from the NHS, not to everyone who lacks a workplace at a medical institution. The inspectorate explains that this is not an actual workplace but a register marker allowing pharmacies to identify medical professionals authorized to prescribe medicine for personal use; the note is not visible in the public part of the register.

Prescribing medicine for personal use requires using forms printed since September 1 this year, while previously issued forms could be used until August 31, with unused forms to be submitted to the NHS for destruction.

Background

Last April, members of the Public Health Subcommittee of the Saeima's Social and Labor Affairs Committee agreed to call on the Ministry of Health to allow any doctor or paramedic with a diploma to prescribe up to 50 prescriptions a year for personal use. The Latvian Medical Association and the Latvian Association of Family Physicians emphasized at the time that the main criterion should be the diploma rather than certification or active professional registration. Ministry representatives, meanwhile, initially argued that medical professionals who do not maintain their qualifications and are not in the register should not be allowed to write prescriptions, and expressed concern about the ability to verify that medicines were being prescribed only for personal use.