Basque electronic prescriptions, already operational in Portugal, Croatia, Poland and Finland, can also be used in Estonia

The Basque Country continues to be a benchmark in the deployment of the interoperability of electronic prescriptions in the European Union.

 Any person residing in the Basque Country will be able to use their electronic prescription, e-rezeta, in Estonia - or vice versa - to access their medical records or pick up medication at pharmacies.

Following authorisation by the European Commission, Estonia joins Portugal, Croatia, Poland and Finland - countries where the Basque e-prescription was already operational.

The Basque Country thus continues to play a leading role in the deployment of electronic prescription interoperability in the European Union, which is expected to be extended to 25 member countries by 2025.

The Basque Government's Minister of Health, Gotzone Sagardui, has stressed the importance of the European bodies' trust in the Basque Country's work in a programme which, beyond technological innovation, will serve to improve pharmaceutical provision and healthcare for the population throughout the EU. Among other reasons, because it favours the appropriate and rational use of medicines, speeds up access to drugs, avoids visits to health centres once the treatments have been prescribed, eliminates the loss of prescriptions that occurred in paper format, and improves both the safety and convenience of patients.

                          Interoperability between Autonomous Communities

For its part, the interoperability of electronic prescriptions between different Autonomous Regions, implemented in the Basque Country in January 2018, allows access to medication at any pharmacy in Spain, upon presentation of an Individual Health Card.

Thus, since the date of its launch, a total of 476,901 Basques have withdrawn their medication in pharmacies in other autonomous communities, with a total of 7,666,269 cases. Castilla y León, with 2,452,990 cases, was the autonomous community where it was used the most, followed by Cantabria (1,431,981), the Region of Valencia (701,361), La Rioja (595,599) and Galicia (585,089).

In turn, Basque pharmacies have treated 135,232 patients from other communities, with a total of 975,073 cases: 194,409 in Araba, 462,873 in Bizkaia and 317,791 in Gipuzkoa. The vast majority of these cases correspond to people from Castilla y León (187,334), Madrid (147,771) and Cantabria (103,847).

The e-rezeta provides added security and convenience for users; and that’s why it has almost completely replaced paper prescriptions. In fact, in 2022, 99.95% of prescriptions billed were electronic.