Online doctor and prescriptions in Malta
An online assessment starts with a written medical questionnaire. A doctor reads your answers, decides whether the treatment you describe is medically justified and puts the decision in writing. There is no video call, no telephone consultation and no live chat. Where treatment is already established and the answers are complete, a cross-border prescription may follow; where recent results are missing or new symptoms have appeared, an examination in Malta comes first. This page explains how prescribing is organised locally, which details the doctor needs and where the limits of a cross-border document lie.
How prescribing is organised in Malta
In the Maltese public health service a prescription is normally written by a family doctor or by a specialist, at a health centre or at hospital, and the patient then collects the medicine at a pharmacy. Two decisions are separate here and neither of them is automatic: the doctor decides what to prescribe, and the pharmacist decides whether to dispense it.
Which medicines the public system provides is a different question from prescribing. It is settled under the Government Formulary List and through the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme, known as POYC, so questions about entitlement belong to the Ministry for Health rather than to whoever wrote the prescription.
Medicines themselves are regulated by the Medicines Authority, which authorises them and supervises the market. Doctors practising in Malta are entered in the register kept by the Medical Council of Malta, and pharmacists in the register kept by the Pharmacy Council.
Our document is prepared outside that structure. It is a cross-border prescription, described in its own section below, and it is not written into any Maltese state record.
What an online assessment is, and what it is not
You fill in a questionnaire about the treatment so far and about your health. A doctor reads it, asks for more if something is missing, and issues a written decision. The process is asynchronous: nobody rings you and you do not book a slot.
There is no video call, no telephone consultation and no live chat with a doctor. That is a deliberate limit rather than a missing feature. A written history can be assessed carefully, but it cannot replace an examination, listening to the chest or measuring blood pressure in the room.
This route is not for urgent problems. Chest pain, breathlessness, fainting, a severe allergic reaction or sudden weakness need emergency care: call 112 or go to Accident and Emergency.
It is also not a substitute for a family doctor. Long-term follow-up of a chronic condition, referrals, vaccinations and care in the public network stay with the Maltese health service.
Which details the doctor needs
The doctor needs an exact description of the treatment so far: the name of the medicine or of the active substance, the strength, the pharmaceutical form, the dosage, and who started the treatment and when. A bare medicine name without those details is not enough to assess.
The course of treatment matters just as much. When were you last reviewed, what did the last results show, has anything changed since, and was the treatment ever interrupted. For some groups of medicines laboratory checks are part of ordinary monitoring, so the doctor may ask for a recent result with a date on it.
Other medicines count too, including anything bought without a prescription and food supplements, together with known allergies, chronic conditions, pregnancy and breastfeeding. Several medicines taken at once is one of the commonest reasons for caution or for a change of plan.
If the answers are incomplete, the doctor asks for more. Without that the assessment cannot be closed, because closing it would mean deciding without a basis. Dosage is always set by the doctor, and the details of a particular medicine are in the leaflet in the box.
When a repeat is appropriate and when an examination comes first
A repeat is meant for treatment that a doctor has already started and that has settled: the dose has been unchanged for a while, you tolerate the medicine and no new symptoms have appeared. Raised blood pressure, an underactive thyroid, type 2 diabetes, raised blood lipids and asthma are typical examples, and there is more on /health-guide/underactive-thyroid/, /health-guide/asthma-symptoms/, /health-guide/type-2-diabetes-symptoms/ and /health-guide/high-cholesterol/.
A repeat is not appropriate for a first prescription, for new or worsening symptoms, for values that have swung, when results are old or missing, in pregnancy and breastfeeding, or after a serious side effect. In those situations an examination is needed and this route cannot stand in for it.
Continuing a treatment is also not the same thing as a new illness. A new infection is not a continuation of an earlier course, even when the same medicine was used before, and it needs an assessment of its own.
There is more about repeats without an appointment on /blog/repeat-prescription-without-a-visit/, and about running out of medication while you are in Malta on /blog/ran-out-of-medication-in-malta/.
Which medicines can be covered, and which we never issue
In practice this route covers established treatment of long-term conditions: thyroid replacement such as /medicines/eltroxin/, inhaled treatment such as /medicines/ventolin/, blood sugar medicines such as /medicines/metformin/, /medicines/jardiance/ and /medicines/januvia/, lipid lowering such as /medicines/lipitor/ and /medicines/simvastatin/, and hormonal contraception such as /medicines/yasmin/, /medicines/nuvaring/ and /medicines/evra/.
Cross-border prescribing has limits set by European Union law. Article 11(6) of Directive 2011/24/EU excludes medicines containing narcotic and psychotropic substances from the recognition of prescriptions issued in another Member State, and that limit cannot be worked around.
We therefore never issue opioid painkillers, benzodiazepines, Z-drug sleeping tablets, stimulants such as methylphenidate and lisdexamfetamine, gabapentinoids such as pregabalin and gabapentin, or cannabis for medical use. For those medicines the right route is a doctor in Malta who can examine you and follow the treatment over time.
Antibiotics carry a separate warning. A new infection needs a doctor's assessment and is not a continuation of an earlier course, so reaching for an antibiotic prescribed in the past is not appropriate. The page /medicines/augmentin/ is informational for that reason and does not lead to an order.
What a pharmacist checks
Dispensing is a professional decision taken by the pharmacist. He or she checks the identity of the person collecting the medicine, whether the details on the document are complete and legible, and whether what is prescribed fits the information available.
The pharmacist may refuse, for instance where the document is doubtful, where it cannot be read properly, or where dispensing would be risky for the patient. That discretion is a safeguard, and it is the reason no document can come with a promise of acceptance attached.
A pharmacist may also offer an interchangeable product with the same active substance, strength and form. It is worth checking in advance whether the medicine is authorised and on the market in Malta and under which name, and the Medicines Authority publishes that information.
Entitlement under the public scheme is assessed separately from dispensing. A medicine dispensed against a document created outside the Maltese system will in practice have to be paid for at the pharmacy. There is more on /blog/eu-prescription-maltese-pharmacy/.
How our document differs from a Maltese prescription
We are not part of the Maltese public health service. The document is not written into any state record and is not visible in myHealth, the government patient portal, so there is no code or number at the pharmacy that could be called up on a screen.
What we issue is a cross-border prescription prepared in the format set out in the Annex to Directive 2012/52/EU. That Annex lists what such a document must contain, among other things the international non-proprietary name of the active substance, the pharmaceutical form, the strength, the quantity, the dosage and the prescriber's details and signature. You receive it as a PDF by email and bring it to the pharmacy printed or on screen, together with photo identification.
The document is issued by lek. Damian Wojno, registered with the Polish Medical Chamber, licence no. 3211301. He is not registered with the Medical Council of Malta, which keeps the register of doctors practising here, and he does not take over the role of your family doctor.
How long a prescription stays valid is set by the prescriber and written on the document itself, so reading it there is the reliable way to find out. There is more on /blog/prescription-validity-malta/.
What we offer and what we do not offer
We offer a medical questionnaire and a doctor's review. For treatment you already take, the route is /repeat-prescription/ and the doctor's review costs 24,90 €; priority handling is available for an extra 9,90 €, which means a place in the queue and not a promised date.
For hormonal contraception you already use the route is /contraception/ at 24,90 €, and for weight loss medicines from the GLP-1 group it is /weight-loss/ at 29,90 €. There is more about those areas on /contraceptive-pill/ and /weight-loss-injections/, and about blood sugar and blood lipids on /diabetes-and-blood-sugar/ and /heart-and-cholesterol/.
We do not offer video calls, telephone consultations or live chat. We do not issue medical certificates and we do not handle mental health problems. We do not sell medicines and we do not send them by post; you collect the medicine at a pharmacy using the document that reaches you by email and that you print.
Our service is not covered by the Maltese public system, and whether a particular medicine is provided publicly is settled under the Government Formulary List and the POYC scheme rather than by us. The fee covers the doctor's review, not the issuing of a document and not the price of the medicine at the pharmacy. If the doctor decides on medical or legal grounds that a prescription is not justified, we refund the fee, and the same applies when the assessment cannot be completed. There is more about what the fee covers on /blog/online-prescription-cost-malta/.
Which details does the doctor need?
The name of the medicine or of the active substance, the strength, the pharmaceutical form and the dosage, plus who started the treatment and when. Add when you were last reviewed and what the last results showed, with dates. Other medicines, food supplements, allergies, chronic conditions, pregnancy and breastfeeding all belong in the answers. If something is missing, the doctor asks for more before deciding.
Which medicines can be covered?
Established treatment of long-term conditions: thyroid replacement, inhaled treatment for asthma, blood sugar medicines, lipid lowering treatment and hormonal contraception you already use. We never issue opioid painkillers, benzodiazepines, Z-drug sleeping tablets, stimulants, gabapentinoids or cannabis for medical use, because narcotic and psychotropic substances are excluded from cross-border prescriptions under Article 11(6) of Directive 2011/24/EU.
Is there a video call?
No. There is no video call, no telephone consultation and no live chat with a doctor. The assessment is made from a written questionnaire that the doctor reads and answers in writing, asking for more information where it is needed. Where a safe decision would require an examination, the doctor declines and points you to a doctor in Malta.
What does a pharmacist check?
The identity of the person collecting the medicine, whether the details on the document are complete and legible, and whether what is prescribed fits the information available. The pharmacist may refuse where there is doubt, and may offer an interchangeable product with the same active substance, strength and form. The decision rests with the pharmacist, for our document as for any other.
Which body regulates medicines in Malta?
The Medicines Authority authorises medicines and supervises the market in Malta. Doctors practising here are entered in the register kept by the Medical Council of Malta, and pharmacists in the register kept by the Pharmacy Council. Our doctor holds a Polish licence to practise, number 3211301, and is not entered in the Maltese register of doctors.
Will a pharmacy in Malta accept the prescription?
That cannot be promised. Dispensing is decided by the pharmacist, who checks identity and the completeness of the document and who may refuse where something is doubtful. It helps to check in advance whether the medicine is authorised and on the market in Malta, and to expect to pay the pharmacy price in full, because entitlement under the public scheme is assessed separately.
Is the prescription visible in myHealth?
No. The document is created outside the Maltese public system, so it is not written into any state record and does not appear in myHealth. There is no code or number for a pharmacy to call up on a screen. You receive the document as a PDF by email and bring it printed or on screen, together with photo identification.
What does the fee cover?
The doctor's review of your questionnaire, not the issuing of a document and not the price of the medicine at the pharmacy. The review costs 24,90 € for treatment you already take, with priority handling for an extra 9,90 €. If the doctor decides on medical or legal grounds that a prescription is not justified, we refund the fee, and the same applies when the assessment cannot be completed.