Poland to expand pharmacist prescribing rights and update e-prescription system

Poland is implementing significant reforms to its prescription and e-health systems. The Ministry of Health has presented a plan to expand the authority of pharmacists, allowing them to issue prescriptions in four specific scenarios: addressing immediate health threats, providing immunologic products for vaccinations, ensuring continuity of therapy (excluding psychotropic and narcotic drugs), and prescribing specific medications as defined by ministerial regulation.

Additionally, new e-health system rules are set to take effect in mid-September 2026. To prevent errors in reimbursed prescriptions, the system will introduce an automatic control mechanism. If a physician enters inconsistent data regarding dosage, treatment duration, or the number of packages, the system will block the issuance of the document until the error is corrected. This measure aims to prevent patients from discovering prescription discrepancies only when they arrive at the pharmacy.