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Imposition of Restrictions on Prescribing and Dispensing Medicinal Products

Passed 19.03.2020 No. 27
RT III, 20.03.2020, 1
Entry into force 19.03.2020

Amended by the following legal instruments (show)

This Directive is established under § 52 of the Government of the Republic Act and § 59 (4) of the Health Services Organisation Act:

1. Due to the following:
1.1. on 12 March 2020 by Order No. 76 the Government of the Republic declared an emergency situation in the entire territory of the Republic of Estonia in connection with the worldwide pandemic spread of the corona virus causing the COVID-19 disease and the ensuing threat of mass infections in Estonia;
1.2. owing to the spread of the disease, the nature of the new infectious agent and the resulting scarce resources, the COVID-19 epidemic has become a health emergency;
1.3. increased demand for medicinal products along with other measures established in the international emergency situation may result in difficulties with the availability of medicinal products.
2. Due to the need to ensure people the availability of effective, high quality and safe medicinal products, I decide as follows:
2.1. health care professionals with the right to prescribe medicinal products are allowed to prescribe medicinal products for chronic diseases for no more than two months at a time;
2.2. pharmacies may dispense medicinal products subject to repeat prescription no more than one prescription’s worth for no more than two months;
2.3. when dispensing medicinal products, pharmacies shall consider the quantities of medicinal products purchased earlier and only dispense medicinal products if the medicinal products already purchased do not suffice for the next two months of treatment in the case of continuous treatment or until the end of treatment in the case of fixed-term treatment;
2.4. if the life or health of a person would be compromised by non-dispensing of a medicinal product, the pharmacy may also dispense the medicinal product in an exceptional case if the conditions of clause 2.3. are not met. The dispenser of medicinal products shall document the reason for dispensing a medicinal product;
2.5. pharmacies may dispense over-the-counter medicinal products no more than two packagings per proprietary medicinal product and per customer. Pharmacies may dispense medicinal products containing paracetamol up to 30 tablets per customer.
[RT III, 10.04.2020, 7 – entry into force 09.04.2020]
3. This Directive shall be made available to health care professionals entitled to prescribe medicinal products and to pharmacy service providers.
4. This Directive takes effect on the day it is signed and it shall remain in effect until the need for it ceases to exist but for no longer than until the end of the emergency situation. Persons referred to in clause 3 shall be informed when the need ceases to exist.

This Directive can be appealed against pursuant to the procedure provided for in the Code of Administrative Court Procedure.

Published under § 2 (6) of the Riigi Teataja Act by a decision of the publisher of the Riigi Teataja.