POYC

The Pharmacy of Your Choice (POYC) scheme is a national pharmaceutical service which provides thousands of patients suffering from chronic conditions with free pharmaceutical stock through the government, under Schedule II and Schedule V legislation through the community pharmacies.

How it works:

  1. Visit with consultant
  2. Documentation submission to POYC
  • Medicines Request Form
  • Prescription for chronic medication
  • Copy of ID Card
  • Pharmacy Registration Form
  1. Entitlement documents issued by POYC including Schedule II (Pink) or Schedule V (Yellow)
  2. Collection of free medicines from registered pharmacy
  • Patients are to collect their medicines from the pharmacy they are registered with every 28 days (1 month) for controlled drugs (GREEN prescriptions) and every 56 days (2 months) for all other medicines (WHITE prescriptions).

FAQs

Once you receive all of your entitled documents (Schedule II/V), take a photocopy of these, together with a photocopy of your ID Card and a prescription enlisting all of your medication to the pharmacy where you wish to collect your medication. Ask the pharmacist to give you a pharmacy registration form and fill in Section A of the form. Return all of the documents to the pharmacist, who will then fill in Section B of the pharmacy registration form and will forward the documentation to the Pharmacy of Your Choice Unit. Section C filled in by a doctor. Processing of such documentation will take between 2-4 days, after which you will be able to collect your medication.
If you were previously registered with another pharmacy and wish to change the pharmacy of your choice, complete the change in pharmacy form. Give the completed form to the managing pharmacist at the pharmacy and he/she will send this document to the POYC unit where your registration will be transferred.
For Controlled drugs or ‘dangerous drugs’, the consultant must fill an application form for narcotic and psychotropic substances issue a GREEN prescription. In order to collect such drugs through the POYC scheme, you would need to submit both documents, together with a photocopy of your ID Card, to the Drug Control Unit at St. Luke’s Hospital POYC section. The Drug Control Card Unit will issue a control card. Once the controlled card has been, you can collect your entitled controlled substances from the pharmacy of your choice. When collecting controlled drugs, patients are required to present:
  1. A valid a control card duly filled-in by the medical practitioner
  2. ID Card
Schedule V document expires every 10 years whilst your Schedule II document expires every 2 years. To renew your Schedule V or II document, your consultant would need to submit a new application.