The Russian Ministry of Health has prepared a draft order that is intended to update the rules for dispensing medicines by pharmacies, individual entrepreneurs and medical organizations that have the appropriate license, as well as their separate divisions in populated areas where there are no pharmacies. If adopted, the innovations will come into force on March 1, 2025 and will be valid until March 1, 2031.

Earlier, the Ministry of Health has already made proposals to change the rules for dispensing medicines – they were assessed by a specialist in pharmaceutical procedures of the SRO “Association of Independent Pharmacies” specifically for GxP News.

In particular, it is proposed to exclude the clause on the statim mark on the prescription, which obliged the pharmacy to serve the client within one working day if the product was out of stock. The period for servicing a prescription with the cito mark will be increased from two to three days. The remaining prescriptions will be serviced “within a period not exceeding 10 working days from the date of expiration of the prescription.”

If the requested prescription item is not available, the pharmacy employee will return the form to the patient with the note “Prescription accepted for servicing”, indicating the date the prescription was placed on servicing, and indicating the entry number in the prescription registration log that is being serviced.

The draft also states that the prescription registration log will be kept in paper or electronic form, and prescriptions that are in the queue will not be allowed to be serviced in other pharmacies. Upon receipt of the goods expected by the patient, the pharmacy employee must notify the patient of this within one working day.

Recall: Russian President Vladimir Putin previously instructed the Russian Ministry of Health to review the timeframes during which deferred servicing of prescriptions for receiving medications is carried out.

Source: GxP-news