Comment by miki123211 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by miki123211 | Hacker News Reader

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Polish person here, this is very true. Our prescription system is extremely centralized, there's no such thing as a paper prescription any more. When a doctor gives you a prescription, you get a four-digit code. The prescription can be redeemed at any farmacy by giving them the code and your national identification (PESEL) number. If this system goes down, there's no access to prescription medication, to anybody, anywhere in the country, period. Even an emergency government authorization to use paper prescriptions wouldn't help here, as a lot of people are on "long-term" prescriptions. They go to a specialist once a year or so, get a prescription for a year's worth of drugs, and then go to the farmacy every month to get their monthly refill. There's no way we have enough doctors to get all the long-term prescriptions correctly and quickly re-issued on paper when the need arises.

This is true re electronic prescriptions. It’s an awesome system that works like a charm.

However, paper prescriptions still exist and can be used in a pinch. I had a doctor write one out for me a few months ago. He did not have access to a computer but had a pad and his stamp on him.

Keep in mind that this electronic system came online a few years ago. Most doctors have issued paper prescriptions longer than electronic prescriptions.

It’s a bit dramatic to say that there is no way to get them to do it again if the need arose.

Sounds like the real crisis is that it costs a tiny bit more money doing it the old fashioned way.

I hope I did not give an indication that it costs more money doing it the pen-and-paper way. There is no cost involved to the patient. Is not know about the doctor but I presume it’s free issuing a prescription either way.

> There's no way we have enough doctors to get all the long-term prescriptions correctly and quickly re-issued on paper when the need arises.

In the US, prescriptions with refills have a label on the bottle indicating how many refills left. I imagine in a recognized crisis, you would be able to get those refilled with little trouble, maybe even if it said zero refills as long as it was a drug typically used long term and not a drug commonly abused.

> label on the bottle

We don't do that. You just get a box and that's it.

You could print a label that is stickied onto the "retail" box.

This is usually the case in the UK, at least at major pharmacy chains. It’s definitely convenient (similar to the US-style bottles) for traveling to easily indicate that any medicines you have are on prescription in your name.

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