The paper version of the so-called white recipe – the prescription for class C drugs, i.e. those which are paid for by citizens, as they are not granted by NHS (National Health Service) – will soon become a thing of the past. Starting from 2025the Italian Government plans to implement theitem no. 54 of the 2025 Budget Lawthus completing the process dematerialization of medical prescriptionswhich will be replaced with their digital counterpart. This will allow doctors to send them electronically, for example via email, via WhatsApp, and so on. This change aims to reduce bureaucracy And simplify the lives of citizens. If today patients are forced to physically go to doctors’ offices to receive a paper prescription, they will soon be able to receive their medicines with a simple digital codejust as already happens with the red recipe for class A drugs, those covered by the National Health Service.
The details of item no. 54 of the 2025 Budget Law
THE’item no. 54 of the 2025 Budget Lawentitled “Dematerialization of paper medical prescriptions for the prescription of drugs paid for by the NHS, SASNs and citizens” is located at pages 238-240 of the PDF document freely available on the Chamber of Deputies website. In the document in question, we read:
Article 54 provides, in order to strengthen the monitoring of prescriptive appropriateness and to guarantee the complete supply of the electronic health record (FSE), that all prescriptions paid by the National Health Service, the territorial services for health care at flight, maritime and civil aviation personnel (SASN) and at the expense of the citizen, are carried out in the electronic format referred to in the ministerial decrees of the MEF regarding the dematerialisation of medical prescriptions. The law also provides that the Regions, in the exercise of their supervisory and control functions, must ensure, through the competent authorities for the territory, the implementation of the complete provision of the ESF in electronic format.
“Translated” in simple terms, therefore, the objective of this rule is to effectively get rid of white paper recipes and replace them with an electronic version. This innovation is part of a broader strategy that aims to complete dematerialisation of medical prescriptionsstandardizing the prescription method both for drugs paid for by the State and for those paid by the citizen.
Each prescription will be digitally generated through a computer systemwhich will associate each recipe with a Electronic Prescription Number or NRE. Basically it is a identification code visible to all pharmacists. Thanks to this code, pharmacists will be able to access the prescription in real time and provide the right medicine, eliminating any errors due to the difficult interpretation of the doctor’s handwriting (not a rare problem at all).
Possible critical issues in the dematerialisation process of medical prescriptions
The novelty, however, is not without its critical issues. There Sogei platformthe company of MEF (Ministry of Economy and Finance) which manages the digital recipe system, has recently suffered major malfunctions, which have caused disruptions in various Italian regions. To go into more detail, in recent weeks the system has blocked several times, forcing doctors to temporarily return to the old red prescriptions (writing them by hand) or, in the worst cases, to have their patients return at a later time, causing expectations and many inconveniences for the latter.
Asked by The Republicthe secretary of the family doctors union FIMMG (Italian Federation of General Practitioners), Silvestro Scottiregarding the possible critical issues attributable to the dematerialisation process of medical prescriptionsreported:
Although the objective is to improve efficiency and better monitor prescriptions, the risk is that the measure does not take into account the current capacity of the IT system to support an exclusively digital load.
