How you are affected by the National Medication List

You can see which medicines and other goods you have been prescribed and picked up at the pharmacy, including in the digital service Läkemedelskollen. From May 1, 2021, it will be easier to share that information with healthcare professionals when you seek medical care. The information is in the National Medication List.

You cannot opt out of registering your prescriptions and withdrawals in the National Medication List. You also cannot opt out of having your high-cost protection data registered. Therefore, there are high demands on the protection of your data – only authorised healthcare professionals can see the information about your prescriptions and withdrawals.

When you visit healthcare

Healthcare professionals need the right authorisation to see information about your prescriptions and withdrawals. They also need your consent to see the information. You give your consent to a doctor, nurse, dentist or another healthcare professional. In exceptional cases, they can see the information anyway, for example when it is not possible to ask you for your consent, for example if you are unconscious.

If you are a dosage patient, different rules apply than for other patients.

If you do not wish to give your consent

Without your consent, the authorised healthcare professional can see if you have been prescribed specific medicines in the last two years. This is in order to make it more possible for healthcare to identify and counteract misuse of medicines, for example of drugs classified as narcotics.

If you want to hide information from healthcare professionals

You have the right to hide specific prescriptions and withdrawals from healthcare professionals. If you do this, the information will not be shown to healthcare professionals when you give your consent to them seeing your prescriptions and withdrawals. However, they can see that there is information that you have hidden.

You can use Läkemedelskollen to hide information in the National Medication List. You can choose to view the information again at any time.

Even if you hide the information, it may be shown to healthcare professionals, for example in the following situations:

• if you are in an emergency situation and cannot give your consent
• if you are a dosage patient
• if the information is in your patient record – you need to hide the information in your patient record as well in order for healthcare professionals not to be able to see it.

It can be risky to hide information about medicines

If your doctor cannot see the information about your medicines, it will become more difficult to avoid medicines that counteract or react negatively with each other. This means that hiding information can pose a risk. If you are hiding prescriptions and withdrawals, you must tell your healthcare professionals yourself so that they can provide you with good and safe care.

Hide withdrawals with paper prescriptions

You can hide withdrawals that have been made and will be made on paper prescriptions so that healthcare professionals cannot see them in their systems.

As of 1 May 2021, paper prescriptions, with few exceptions, will be registered in the National Medication List before the medicines are dispensed. To hide these withdrawals, you need to hide the prescriptions to which the withdrawals belong.

When you visit a pharmacy

In order for pharmacy staff to be able to hand over your product, they always get to see your prescriptions and withdrawals, but they need your consent to see the reason for the treatment on the prescription.

You can hide the reason for the treatment

You can hide the information regarding the reason for the treatment on a prescription. If the pharmacy staff decide that they need to see the reason for the treatment in order to dispense your product, they will need additional consent from you.

Your prescription may contain both the reason for the treatment and the purpose of treatment. You can only hide the reason for the treatment on the prescription. Pharmacy staff can still see the treatment purpose.

When you ask for advice on your use of medicines

If pharmacy staff want to see your prescriptions and withdrawals to advise you without dispensing anything, the pharmacy staff need your consent. The reason for the treatment on a prescription is never shown when you are given advice.

If you have hidden a prescription and the withdrawal of the prescription, or withdrawals made on paper prescriptions, from healthcare professionals, it is also not shown to pharmacy staff when they provide you with advice. Pharmacy staff do not see that you have hidden information in the National Medication List.

You can use Läkemedelskollen

You can see information about your prescriptions and withdrawals in several ways: on printouts from pharmacies, at e-commerce pharmacies and in the digital service Läkemedelskollen. In Läkemedelskollen you can also hide data. You can choose to view the information again at any time.

Put simply, one could say that Läkemedelskollen is a window into the National Medication List. If you are at least 18 years old and have an e-ID, you can do the following in Läkemedelskollen:

• see the medicines that you, your children under the age of 13 or your pets, have been prescribed
• see what you have withdrawn from the pharmacy
• manage and register power of attorneys for pharmacy related matters
• see how much you have left before the high-cost protection discount comes into effect
• pick up extracts from the information available about you in the registers National Medication List and Receptdepå Djur.

You can access Läkemedelskollen via the 1177 or the Swedish eHealth Agency’s websites.

If you are unable to use Läkemedelskollen, you can contact the Swedish eHealth Agency to request that certain data in the National Medication List is blocked. You will then receive a form to fill out and send back to the Swedish eHealth Agency. Email registrator@ehalsomyndigheten.se if you want to order a form. You can also call us at 0771-766 200.

Information may be hidden from guardians and representatives

Healthcare professionals who are authorised to prescribe medicines may hide information on a minor's prescription for confidentiality reasons. The following information may be hidden from a minor patient's guardians and representatives:

• a prescription and the prescription’s previous and future withdrawals
• all withdrawals made with paper prescriptions.

Information hidden from guardians and agents does not appear on a printout from the National Medication List at a pharmacy, regardless of who wants to see it. This also applies to equivalent printouts in e-commerce.

The access log shows who has seen your data

In Läkemedelskollen you will find an access log. Here you can see information about when, why, in what professional capacity and from where someone has seen the information about your prescriptions and withdrawals.