Getting a repeat prescription without seeing your GP
A repeat prescription is a continuation of treatment you are already on, so the medical question is narrower than it is at the start: is this still the right medicine, at the right dose, with the monitoring up to date. That question can often be answered from a written history and recent results, which is why remote repeat assessments exist. It cannot always be answered that way, and knowing which situations fall on which side of that line is the useful part. This page sets out what a doctor reviews, what to have ready, and when a face-to-face appointment is the only correct answer.
What a doctor is deciding when you ask for a repeat
A repeat request is not an administrative reprint. The doctor is deciding whether continuing the same medicine at the same dose is still appropriate, and the inputs to that decision are your history, your current symptoms, the other medicines you take, and how recently the treatment was monitored. If those inputs are complete and unremarkable, a repeat is a reasonable outcome. If any of them is missing or has changed, the correct outcome is a review rather than a prescription.
That framing explains most refusals people find frustrating. A doctor who asks for a recent blood pressure reading before reissuing an antihypertensive, or a recent thyroid function result before reissuing levothyroxine, is not adding friction; monitoring is part of the treatment, and continuing to prescribe without it is prescribing blind.
It also explains why the request works best when the treatment is genuinely stable. Same medicine, same dose, no new symptoms, nothing else changed.
What counts as stable treatment
Stable means the medicine and the dose have not changed recently, the condition it treats is behaving as expected, and monitoring appropriate to that medicine is current. A person who has taken the same dose of levothyroxine for two years with a thyroid function test in the last year is stable. A person whose dose was changed a month ago, or who has started a new medicine that interacts, is not, whatever the pharmacy label says.
Being on a long-term medicine is not the same thing as being stable on it. New symptoms, a recent hospital admission, a pregnancy, a significant change in weight or kidney function, or side effects you have started noticing all move you out of the category, and they are exactly the things a good questionnaire asks about.
If you are unsure which side of the line you are on, the safest reading is that a change in the last few weeks means a review rather than a repeat.
What the doctor reviews before issuing
In practice the review covers the active substance and dose, the indication, how long the treatment has run, the date and result of the most recent relevant monitoring, other prescribed and over-the-counter medicines, allergies, kidney and liver problems, pregnancy or planned pregnancy, and any symptom that could be an adverse effect of the medicine in question.
Each medicine class then adds its own item. Thyroid replacement adds thyroid function. Blood pressure treatment adds recent readings, kidney function and electrolytes. Statins add an assessment of muscle symptoms. Asthma inhalers add how often the reliever is being used, because frequent reliever use is a marker of poor control rather than a reason for another inhaler. Antidepressants add mood, sleep and any thoughts of self-harm.
A repeat that skips the class-specific item is not a shortcut; it is the part that catches the deteriorating patient. Expect to be asked.
What to have ready before you start
Gather these before you begin, because a request that stalls waiting for documents is the most common reason an assessment goes slowly and the most common reason a fee is not refunded. Have the exact name of the active substance, the strength and the dosage form, taken from the box or the pharmacy label rather than from memory. Have the dose and how often you take it. Have a photograph of a previous prescription, a pharmacy label or a repeat slip.
Have the date and result of the most recent monitoring relevant to the medicine, if you have it: thyroid function, blood pressure readings, kidney function, cholesterol, whatever applies. A photograph of a laboratory report is fine.
Have a list of everything else you take, including things bought without a prescription and supplements, because interactions are one of the two most common reasons a repeat is declined. The other is out-of-date monitoring.
When a face-to-face review is required instead
Some things cannot be assessed in writing, and no service should pretend otherwise. A new symptom that needs examining, chest pain, breathlessness, an unexplained lump, unintended weight loss, blood where there should not be blood, a wound or a rash that needs looking at: these need a clinician in the room, not a form.
Monitoring that is overdue is the second group. If a medicine requires bloods that are a year past due, the correct answer is to arrange the bloods rather than to issue another supply.
The third group is treatment that is not working. If the condition is not controlled, another identical prescription is the wrong tool. That applies to asthma with rising reliever use, blood pressure that is not at target, depression that has not responded, and pain that is escalating.
If you are in any of those groups, an Irish GP practice, a GP out-of-hours service, or in an emergency A&E on 112 or 999, is where you should be going.
What cannot be repeated on this route at all
MEDINOW does not issue controlled medicines, and cross-border recognition of prescriptions under Directive 2011/24/EU does not extend to narcotic and psychotropic products. In practical terms that rules out opioid painkillers, benzodiazepines, Z-drugs used for sleep, stimulants used in ADHD, and cannabis-based products. We also do not issue gabapentinoids such as pregabalin and gabapentin.
This is not a policy that can be argued around, and it exists partly to protect the people most likely to ask. Long-term treatment in those groups needs a prescriber who knows the patient and can review dose, tolerance and dependence in person.
Unlicensed products and anything requiring specialist initiation, including biologics and most oncology treatment, are also outside a remote repeat route. If your treatment is managed by a hospital clinic, the clinic is the correct source.
How the MEDINOW assessment works
MEDINOW is operated by MEDINOW Sp. z o.o. and assessments are carried out by lek. Damian Wojno, a doctor registered in Poland, PWZ no. 3211301. Our model is a written medical questionnaire that the doctor reads and answers in his own time. There is no video consultation, no telephone appointment and no live chat, and we do not describe ourselves as an online GP service, because the doctor here is not your GP.
The repeat prescription assessment costs 19.90 euro. You complete the questionnaire, attach the documentation you have, and the doctor reviews the request. He may issue a prescription, ask for further documentation, or decline.
The fee covers the medical assessment, not the issuing of a document. If the doctor declines on medical grounds, the fee is refunded. If he asks for documentation and it is not supplied, the assessment counts as carried out and the fee is not refunded. That is the whole of the refund position and it is set out in section 5 of our terms.
What arrives, and what you do with it
Where a prescription is issued, it arrives by e-mail as a PDF built to the annex of Implementing Directive 2012/52/EU. It names you by full name and date of birth, names the doctor with his qualification, contact details and country of registration, carries a date and a signature, and identifies the medicine by its active substance with the strength, form, quantity and regimen.
There is no PIN code and no PPS number attached to it, because neither belongs to this route. You take the document to any pharmacy and show photo identification in the name on the prescription. We do not name a pharmacy and we do not send prescriptions to a particular one.
If the pharmacy has a query, the prescriber's contact details are on the document precisely so the query can be raised directly. It is worth ringing ahead to check the item is in stock, which is a more useful call than choosing between chains.
Is this the same as an online GP?
No, and the difference is worth being clear about. An online GP service in Ireland typically offers an appointment with a doctor registered here, by video or telephone, and can act as a source of ongoing primary care. MEDINOW works from a written questionnaire that a doctor registered in Poland reads and answers in his own time, with no video, no telephone appointment and no live chat. That model suits continuation of stable treatment. It does not replace a GP, it cannot examine you, and for a new problem or an unstable condition an Irish GP practice is the right place to go.
Can I get a longer supply so I do not have to do this often?
The quantity is a clinical decision, made against the indication and the monitoring interval rather than against convenience. Where monitoring is due at a particular point, the supply issued will normally take you to that point rather than past it, because a longer supply would let the monitoring slip. Where treatment is genuinely stable and recently monitored, a longer supply is more reasonable. Asking for a specific quantity is fine; expect the doctor to set it according to what the treatment needs.
My prescription has run out and I am away from home. What now?
First, ask a pharmacy: a pharmacist may in defined urgent circumstances supply a limited quantity of a medicine you are established on, and that is the fastest legitimate route when the gap is short. Second, if the medicine is one we cover and your treatment is stable, a repeat assessment is a reasonable option, and the resulting document can be dispensed in any EU pharmacy that recognises it. Third, if the medicine is a controlled drug, neither route applies and you need local medical care.
Will the doctor contact my GP?
Not automatically, and you should assume the record is not shared. That is a real limitation of any remote route rather than a feature, and it is why the questionnaire asks you to report your history accurately: the doctor knows what you tell him and what you attach, and nothing else. It is good practice to tell your GP practice what you have been prescribed elsewhere so that the record they hold stays complete, particularly if you take several medicines or have a condition under active review.
What if the doctor declines?
If the request is declined on medical grounds, the fee is refunded. A decline usually means one of three things: the treatment is not stable enough to continue without examining you, the monitoring is out of date, or the medicine is one we do not issue at all. In each case the message will say which, so you know what to do next. If the reason was documentation that was requested and not supplied, the assessment counts as carried out and the fee is not refunded, which is why gathering the paperwork before starting matters.