filling drug prescriptions

I do not have personal experience in this, but I doubt if a pharmacy in Europe will fill a prescription from a foreign doctor. You may have to find a Dr who will write a prescription for you. Can you not take sufficient medication with you?

I have heard that it is possible. And of course I would take plenty of the meds with me in the first place. It would only be in the case of some disaster...once the airport security removed my meds from my carry-on bag during an inspection and neglected to replace them!

I don't think this is possible. Of course every country here is going to have its own system, and I can only speak for Germany. Here, when you present your prescription, you only pay between 5 & 10 euro, as the rest is going to be covered by your health insurance and your Dr. is going to get some sort of credit for it.

Your best bet is to have some sort of letter from your Dr. with the prescription written on it, and then check each individual country where you are traveling to, and see how their health system works. You may have to visit a Dr. here if you need emergency meds. Then your letter and prescription will be useful to hand over to them.

Where are you going?

Going to big places in Italy...Rome, Florence, Venice. Your suggestion of a letter from my doctor is a good one. Thanks.

Gwen,

Always pack your meds in your carry on. I've never had a problem with an airline allowing me to be overweight because I have meds in my purse. If I feel like I have to, I request assistance transferring planes. By doing that, it labels you a special passenger with medical needs and you can get by with a larger bag to fill with meds.

I'm not sure about Italy, but I know here in Germany a lot of US meds are not issued. Anything having to do with narcotics has to be prescribed by a special doc and the rarely prescribe anything higher than codeine. Sleeping meds and muscle relaxers are under similar conditions. If your doc can, have him prescribe you an extra bottle of each and place it in your checke luggage as well just in case.

Hope you have a great trip!

We were traveling for 3 weeks last trip and my husband takes 7 prescriptions daily. Because the way the insurance industry works, he had to pay for an extra month so he would not run out.

Gwen...you also need to make sure whatever medication you take is actually available in Europe. Just because it's been approved in the U.S. doesn't automatically mean it's available everywhere.

I take one med that is only available in the U.S. If I run out overseas, I'm out of luck.

You can check with the pharmaceutical company and they can tell you if it will be available in Italy and if it is known under a different name.

Gwen,

I don't know how long you are traveling for. I was worried about the same thing. What if it is to soon to fill our prescription before we leave?? I spoke with our pharmasist here what could we do to make sure we have enough meds for our trip. He told me they could contact our insurance company and ask for permission to dispense more than the usual 30 supply. I plan on speaking with our doctor to see if he can do anything and extend our prescriptions, or possibly give us samples to take with us to make up the difference.

Wendy

Gwen,
generally foreign prescriptions aren't honored, because the doctor usually doesn't have a license to practice medicine in that country.
I agree that a letter from your physician explaining your condition and usual therapy is your best strategy. Italy is one of those countries where pharmacists have the authority to issue some prescriptions, so it may not even necessary to visit a doctor.

Jo,
since Gwen isn't a member of a Gesetzliche Kankenkasse her prescription would be a Privatrezept, not a Kassenrezept.

Rachel,
every licensed physician in Germany is able to prescribe narcotics, they'll just need special BTM prescription forms from the BGA.
But it's true that a lot of GPs are so intimidated by the legal obligations associated with narcotics that they're often too timid regarding pain therapy.

Last year while traveling in Northern Ireland I ran out of one of my prescriptions (poor planning by me). I went to a local pharmacy to see what I could do. The pharmacist referred me to a local clinic. An hour later I saw the doctor, got a new prescription, and was on my way. And the clinic didn't charge a thing.

So I think Steve's suggestion of going to a local pharmacist is good.

And please, if possible, take a few days (or more) extra supply in case of a delay. I'm constantly flabbergasted at the number of times people have exactly the number of pills required for the number of hours they expect to be away from their house. I'm talking Very Important Medications. More than once I've had to deal with panicked people at my house trying to reach their doctor in a different time zone, and trying to coordinate with a pharmacy here that needs to speak with their doctor and/or pharmacy back home, blahblahblah. And I've read several stories of people doing this on an overseas trip. Heck, most people I know occasionally drop (and lose) a pill at one time or another. Of course, don't take an exorbitant amount of extras...esp. if of a controlled substance...that's another potential can of worms.

The easiest solution is getting them here before you leave, if at all possible.

I think it's really a no-brainer that you should take as much medication (or more) that you will need on your trip. For me the fear is of something going wrong, losing the medication, having it removed during an inspection and not returned to me, which as I said earlier, actually happened to me once (and while I was able to get it back from the inspector, there's no guarantee that next time I'll be so lucky). I like the suggestion of getting a pharmacist to refer you to a clinic, where you can get them to prescribe what you need if you are in a jam.