The medical prescription or medical request

The medical prescription is a written document, written by a surgeon (ie: a graduate in medicine and surgery, qualified to practice the profession and registered in the professional register), which allows the patient to obtain from the pharmacist the delivery of the medicines that you are listed.

The medical prescription is therefore the written authorization that allows the authorization to sell the medicine to the patient by the pharmacist, who is the only one authorized to carry it out.

This is a certification act which presupposes a state of illness or suffering of the subject, which therefore needs the prescribed therapy.

The recipe therefore has a certification nature for the part that certifies the right of the assisted person for the supply of medicines, from the other nature of authorization for the administration that will provide, through the Pharmaceutical Service, the requested service.

It is normally certified on a document that can have two purposes:

• Patient’s right to withdraw drugs in a pharmacy open to the public;
• Own or personal professional escort under the direct responsibility.

The elements that characterize these documents are:

• Elements for the certain identification of the doctor;
• Prescription or medical transcription;
• The compilation date;
• The doctor’s signature;

It is written on:

• personal letterhead;
• on letterhead of the health facility with personal stamp;
• Simple card with a stamp showing the personal details of the doctor complete with address of the home or clinic, telephone number, in case of own escort;
• Mandatory ministerial form where required;

For the purposes of the legal dispensing regime, medicines can be divided into three categories:

1. Prescription subjects;
2. Dispensable without prescription and on the advice of the pharmacist;
3. Dispensable without prescription and upon direct patient request;

Depending on the nature of the prescribed active principle, its dosage, the routes of administration, the therapeutic use purposes, medical prescriptions can be distinguished in various types:

1. Repeatable recipe (RR).
2. Non-repeatable recipe (RNR) i.e. to be renewed each time.
3. Limitative recipe (RL).
4. Trial ministerial recipe.

All these recipes are subject to a different regulatory regime and are subject to state laws; the error is liable to be reported.