Disabled patients in Slovakia permitted to buy prescription medical aids by mail order

2010-03-09

From June 2010 onwards, disabled people and bed-ridden patients in Slovakia will have easier access to prescribed medical devices, according to the SITA news agency. An amendment to the Act on Healthcare Providers, voted on by the Slovak parliament, stipulates that mail order of prescription appliances for disabled people will not be treated as distance sales of medicines or medical devices, which, in Slovak law, is legal only with regard to OTC products. By adopting the amendment, the MPs reinstated the rule which applied before December 2009. MPs argued that the law was too restrictive and hampered access to medical devices for many patients.
Meanwhile, the regulation governing the conditions for pharmacies eager to offer distance sales of OTC products in Slovakia has still not come into force, and the date has now been moved from 1 March to 15 March.