Your prescription, decoded: how long it lasts and what it costs

How long a prescription lasts

A standard Irish prescription is valid for six months from the date it was written, unless the prescriber states otherwise. Validity is not the same as supply: a prescription can still be in date while every repeat on it has been dispensed. Controlled drugs have much shorter validity and stricter rules.

• Six months' validity is the general position for ordinary prescriptions.
• A prescriber can specify a shorter period, and often does for medicines needing review.
• Repeats are written as a number of further supplies; once used, the prescription is spent even if the six months has not elapsed.
• Pharmacists can, at their professional discretion, provide an emergency supply of a regular medicine in limited circumstances — a safety net, not a substitute for a review.

Repeats and reviews

A repeat prescription is not an administrative formality. It is the point at which a GP checks that the medicine is still working, still safe, and still needed. For blood pressure medication that means a recent reading; for contraception, a blood pressure and risk review; for thyroid replacement, recent bloods. When a practice asks you to come in before another repeat, that is the reason.

Healthmail: how prescriptions reach the pharmacy

Healthmail is Ireland's secure clinical email system, used by GPs, pharmacies and hospitals. A prescription sent by Healthmail travels encrypted from the prescriber to your nominated pharmacy, so there is no paper to lose and no photograph of a script circulating on a phone. It is the only route we use at NOVAGP.IE.

What you actually pay

Two things are worth doing once and never thinking about again: register for the Drugs Payment Scheme even if you rarely reach the cap, and check whether your condition is on the Long-Term Illness list. Both are free to apply for.

What cannot be prescribed remotely

• Controlled drugs, including opioid painkillers, benzodiazepines, sedatives and stimulants such as ADHD medication.
• First prescriptions of medicines that require a physical examination or baseline bloods before starting.
• Anything where a safe decision needs an examination we cannot perform.
• Requests for a named medicine without a clinical history to support it.

These are not arbitrary. Remote prescribing in Ireland is governed by Medical Council guidance, and a GP who prescribes outside it is putting their registration at risk — which is exactly the safeguard you want in place when it is your prescription.

Where a remote review does work well

Continuation of a stable, established medicine; treatment of a straightforward, well-defined problem; a short course of an antibiotic where the assessment supports it; contraception review; and a review after a change in dose. At NOVAGP.IE a full consultation is €39, and a structured smart prescription review — for defined, low-risk requests — is €25, with an Irish-registered GP making every decision.

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