Obstacles to the recognition of medical prescriptions issued in one EU country and presented in another.

A study involving the presentation of 192 Belgian or Finnish prescriptions in pharmacies in five other member states was undertaken to assess whether, as envisaged by European Union law, prescriptions issued in one member state are dispensed by pharmacists in another and to identify factors that influence such decisions. Overall, pharmacists were willing to dispense in 108 cases. Detailed results show important differences depending on the country where prescriptions are presented and whether prescriptions were written by International Nonproprietary Name and in English, as opposed to prescriptions written by brand in a national language.