The Ministry of Universal Health has introduced a new mobile phone service for prescriptions. The new function in the GVA +Salut app sends patients a notification when they pick up their prescribed medication at the pharmacy. The system aims to increase security in the dispensing of drugs and is similar to the alert mechanism that banks offer their customers so that they can be informed in real time of the status of their accounts, withdrawals or card payments.

The app already incorporates information on the treatments that chronic patients have available at the pharmacy, their upcoming prescriptions and the history of dispensations made, so that the patient can keep track of the dates and pharmacies where they have bought each medication.

The mechanics to pick up the treatment at the pharmacy remains the same, as the electronic prescription is still valid the patient just needs to show their SIP card.

In addition, since 2019, the prescriptions that are generated when prescribing a treatment for a chronically ill patient do not have an expiration date. Therefore, the person can pick up the medication from the pharmacy when they need it, without having to worry if it’s out of date.

Prior to this date, when prescribing a treatment, the number of prescriptions necessary to cover the period planned by the doctor was generated by computer, with predetermined dates for their collection at the pharmacy. This meant people had to keep an eye on the calendar, forcing them to pick-up the medication on specific dates and, if they did not use three prescriptions in a row, the treatment was cancelled. Therefore, the patient was not autonomous in managing their needs and there was a risk of accumulating medications at home.

The measures adopted to reverse this situation and promote the optimal use of medicines, have allowed the growth of prescription pharmaceutical spending in the Valencian Community to be contained, but without cutting activity or benefits. There has been an increase in the number of prescriptions issued and a reduction in the cost per prescription.

In quantitative terms, last year, the number of prescriptions increased by 7.4 percent (122,316,422 prescriptions) with an average cost of 11.69 euros/prescription, 2.34 percent lower than the average cost of 2021 (11.97 euros).

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