The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy and Finance with the circular of 3 March they defined 
the rules for the dispensing of medicines prescribed with a white prescription.
In fact, from 31/1/2022, individual pharmacies throughout the national territory must use the procedures set out in the Ministerial Decree of 30 December 2020 in order to allow the use of these prescriptions. Therefore, starting from 31 January, the official start date of the dematerialisation of white prescriptions, they are required to receive and send this type of prescription, which can be used by the citizen throughout the national territory. Therefore, the adaptation of the software is inevitable. However, pharmacies must be able to continue to send white paper prescriptions as well.
As is known, with regard to the dematerialisation of medical prescriptions for the prescription of drugs not covered by the NHS, art. 2 of the Decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in agreement with the Ministry of Health of 30 December 2020 provides that the prescriber proceeds to the generation in electronic format of the prescriptions for drugs not paid by the NHS, according to the methods already operational in all the regions regarding the dematerialized prescription paid by the NHS (decree of November 2, 2011).
The dematerialized prescription for the prescription of medicines not paid by the NHS it is uniquely identified by the electronic blank prescription number (NRBE), assigned by the SAC (Central Reception System) when the prescription is filled in by the prescriber, according to the aforementioned methods set out in the decree of 2 November 2011, possibly also through SAR .
In the face of the positive outcome of the electronic transmission of the data, the doctor issues the paper memo to the patient, according to the model published on the SAC portal (www.sistemats.it), which, at the request of the assisted person, can 
also be transmitted through the alternative channels pursuant to art. 3-bis of the decree of 2 November 2011.
All doctors enrolled in professional orders are authorized to prescribe prescriptions for drugs not covered by the NHS. The regions can give indications about the types of SSR doctors to be included as a priority in the procedures.
For non-repeatable dematerialized recipes (RNR), even restrictive (RNRL), as well as for repeatable dematerialized recipes (RR), even restrictive (RRL), the obligation to store the recipe is considered fulfilled by the SAC which ensures storage in accordance with and gives the pharmacist the possibility of extracting the prescriptions sent to that pharmacy in a given period of time following checks or inspections. The SAC ensures conservation for two years where required.
The patient can access the SAC, also via SAR, with Spid or CNS, in a special area of the portal www.sistemats.it, in order to:
- a) consult and download their own electronic prescriptions generated by prescribers and the related dematerialized memos;
- b) request the use of the dematerialized memo containing drug prescriptions, selecting the pharmacy where to spend the same memo;
- c) if the citizen does not have Spid or CNS, he can access a free area of the TS System portal by entering the NRE, his tax code and the expiry date of the health card. In this context, the citizen will only be able to access the recipe entered, and carry out the same activities referred to in letters a) and b).
The availability of the memorandum in the ESF remains unaffected.
Distance selling of prescription medicines is prohibited. For this reason, even in the case of a prescription with a dematerialized white prescription, the dispensing and sale of a prescription-only medicine must be carried out in the pharmacy
Related news: FAQs
Decree of 30 December 2020 (pdf – 79Kb)
Note:
The networking of prescribers and public and private distributors affiliated with the NHS (pharmacies and specialist structures) allows the detection of pharmaceutical and specialist services by electronically sending prescription data to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF ).
The survey makes it possible to enhance the monitoring of public health expenditure (both at the central and regional/company level) and to carry out checks on the district budget and prescribing appropriateness, aimed at pharmacovigilance and epidemiological surveillance.
The MEF defines specific data transmission calendars annually.
