Medication
There are many things to consider when using medicines. There are many things you can do yourself to make sure that the medicine is safe to use.
Renewing recipes
Prescriptions are valid for two years unless there is a time limit. Prescriptions for central nervous system (CNS) and narcotic medicines, as well as for patient-specific products with special permits and for biological medicines (such as insulins, injectable anti-rheumatic drugs and blood cell growth factors) are only valid for one year. Prescriptions should be sent in for renewal well in advance, at least two weeks before the medicine runs out. You can send a prescription renewal request from MyKanta or you can authorise the pharmacy to send a renewal request, for example when you pick up the last pack of medicines from your prescription.
Prescription renewals are mainly carried out at the customer’s own healthcare centre. In order for a doctor to renew a prescription, you must have a medical relationship with the health service in question, i.e. your treatment must be familiar to the person renewing the prescription. This is particularly important in the case of a prescription for central nervous system (CNS) and narcotic drugs. Medicines prescribed in private practice are renewed in private healthcare for the same reason. However, please remember to also tell us about the prescriptions and diagnoses you have received from your private doctor when you use the services of the Wellbeing Services County. Remember to update your Kanta consent so that your doctor renewing the prescription can also view your healh information from the previous place of treatment.
What prescriptions are not renewed:
– curative medicines (such as antibiotics)
– prescriptions with the label ne repete
– telephone prescriptions
– prescriptions for products with special permit
More information:
Kanta.fi: What is information about Kanta Services?
Medication list
Your medication list is an up-to-date list of all the medicines you take.
Include all the prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines and vaccines you actually take in your medication list. In addition, list any dietary supplements (so-called natural products) you use.
Write down for each product:
- name and strenght (e.g. milligram amount)
- the dose at which you are taking the medicine
- purpose of use
It is important to maintain one up-to-date medication list and update it whenever there are changes to your medication.
You can download the template of the medication list here (for the time being only finnish/swedish version available):
Learn about safe medication
The Instructions for the safe use of medicines guide is an easy-to-read guide for regular people on how to use medicines safely and how to use pharmacy services. Guide summaries can be found in sevaral language versions (finnish, swedish, arabic, kurdish, somali, russian, estonian).