Filenews 7 May 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
May 15 will be the last day on which hospital pharmacies will execute prescriptions for specialized medicines that are not registered in the GHS software but have been issued with the old system on paper.
The Health Insurance Organization, which had called since November 2024 on doctors whose patients received treatments through the procedures of the Ministry of Health, to proceed with the registration of prescriptions (concerning continuation of treatment) in the GHS software.
As can be seen and despite the fact that the administration of specialized treatments has passed under the competence of the HIO since January 1, 2025, many patients still come to hospital pharmacies presenting handwritten prescriptions since their data has not been registered by their doctors in the IT system.
From November 2024 until today, the HIO had extended the deadline for electronic submission of requests four times, "however, as we see, even today patients go to hospital pharmacies to get their treatments with handwritten prescriptions," the director of the HIO, Athos Tsinonidis, told "F".
"On April 30, the last deadline that the Organization had given had expired and we have informed that from May 15, handwritten prescriptions will not be accepted and will not be executed."
Therefore, he added, "we make a final appeal to doctors whose patients receive specialized treatments with approval they had received, most likely at the end of 2024, to proceed with the registration of prescriptions in the IT system so that the HIO can promote the process for their approval and allow patients to continue receiving their medicines through the GHS".
Unfortunately, Mr. Tsinintidis concluded, "it is not possible to continue operating with handwritten recipes. The prescriptions that were issued for patients approved by the EDA of the Ministry of Health are close to their expiration and in order to renew them, if necessary, it is imperative that doctors proceed with the electronic registration of their requests with the HIO".
