Prescriptions and prescription renewal in MyKanta

Your request for a prescription renewal must be processed by health care services within approximately eight days. During that time, a doctor or a nurse with limited rights to prescribe medication will either renew the prescription or reject the renewal request.

You will receive a text message informing you that the prescription has been renewed or rejected if you gave a phone number when you requested the renewal.

You can also monitor the status of the renewal in MyKanta:

1. Log in to MyKanta at kanta.fi.
2. Select the ‘Reseptit’ (Prescriptions) page.
3. Select the search criteria ‘Reseptit, joista on tehty uusimispyyntö’ (Prescriptions for which a renewal request has been submitted) and click on ‘Hae reseptit’ (Retrieve prescriptions).
4. You will see information about the status of the renewal.

You can only request a prescription renewal if medicine has already been purchased with the prescription. The prescription can still be renewed for four months after the prescription has expired.

• Prescriptions that are valid for two years can be renewed for 28 months from the date of prescription.
• Prescriptions that are valid for one year can be renewed for 16 months.

Your doctor may not renew the prescription if

• the prescribed medication is a preparation intended to be taken as a specific course of medicine, such as antibiotics or cough medicine, and prescribing the medication requires an examination of the patient
• the efficacy and safety of the medicine in the patient’s treatment has not been evaluated in the previous 16 months
• the original prescription was prescribed elsewhere in health care services and the doctor does not have sufficient information on the patient’s treatment.

You cannot request a prescription renewal through MyKanta, if

• the doctor has prohibited the renewal of the prescription
• the prescription has been cancelled
• the prescription is subject to dose dispensing, i.e. the pharmacy supplies the medicine to the customer dispensed into single doses.
• an earlier renewal request for the prescription was rejected
• the prescription was issued for purchasing medication abroad
• the prescription is for a special permit product
• no medicine has yet been purchased with the prescription
• the prescription was issued for a hospital pharmacy.

These prescriptions will not appear on the list for clients to select in MyKanta at all.

A doctor or a nurse with limited rights to prescribe medication will renew the prescription. A health care professional will decide whether to accept or reject your request to renew your prescription. Renewal requests are processed at your regular health care services, such as a local health centre or a private medical clinic.

MyKanta suggests the health care units which previously issued prescriptions for you as recipients of the renewal request.

If MyKanta does not suggest a recipient, you can select one in the menu. Submit the prescription renewal request to the unit that is responsible for your care.

Note that not all units receive renewal requests via MyKanta. In such situations, it will not be possible to select the unit in the MyKanta menu. In this case, please contact the health care provider that is responsible for your care and request a prescription renewal directly.

Information about the prescription renewal is sent to the number that the client has given when submitting the renewal request.

If you have received a text message that is not meant for you, a wrong telephone number has been entered in the renewal request by mistake.

This is unfortunate and we apologise for the inconvenience. However, the message does not contain any data that would reveal anyone’s personal data. The situation does not require any action from you.