Pharmacy services

Here is some useful information about pharmacy services. When your child's medicine list has started to get long and often complicated, we have some tips and advice for those of you who have to regularly use a pharmacy.

In most cases, your local pharmacy has the medication you need and can often be helpful in ordering what they may not have. If the local pharmacy is unable to order a type of medicine, they will inform you of this.

The routines for whether it is the pharmacies or the treatment aid center (BHM) that have different medical consumables can vary between the municipalities. The doctor who follows the child and writes the prescription must know this.

Hospital pharmacies

Hospital pharmacies is the specialist healthcare service's pharmacy.

The hospital pharmacies are the hospital's and the patient's competence center for medicines, and contribute to patient safety.

The hospital pharmacies are also the ones who can obtain medicines that are not available at local pharmacies, and work with the hospitals to arrange this.

Some hospital pharmacies have also taken over some of the treatment aid center's (BHM) products, you should be notified of this from BHM.

Find your nearest hospital pharmacy: Hospital pharmacies around Norway

Power of attorney

If someone other than you is to collect medicine and equipment for your child, this person must have a power of attorney signed by you. Remember that you must present identification together with the completed power of attorney form, and that the person who will use the power of attorney must also present identification.

Here you can download the form.

Medicine overview

You can ask your pharmacy to print out a medication list to keep track of how many withdrawals you have left, or when a prescription expires.

Get tips on how to get a good overview at the bottom of this post.

Home delivery

Hospital pharmacies and several local pharmacies offer home delivery.
It can e.g. be because the child's parents do not have a driver's license and live so far away that it is not easy to get to the pharmacy, or because there is so much medication and/or medical consumables that it is difficult to bring home. This is agreed with the relevant pharmacy.

Helsenorge.no

By logging in www.helsenorge.no you get a total overview of your child's prescriptions. You must choose who it applies to when you are logged in. By selecting the child's name and clicking on "Medications", you will get to the medication list for your child. You can tick "Active e-prescriptions" and/or "Blue prescriptions" to get a better overview of prescriptions.

If you press the arrow on the relevant prescription, you will get all the information you need. E.g. what the prescription is called and possibly replacement product, dosage, package size, whether it is a blue prescription and how long it is valid for.

You can also ask the pharmacy to print out a medication list to get control over how many withdrawals you have left, or when a prescription expires.

Reimbursable prescription

If your child has a chronic and long-term illness/condition, the doctor writes out most prescriptions on a blue prescription. This means that you do not have to pay for the medicine and/or the medical consumables. It must be a treatment that has a good effect in relation to the costs.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency assesses which medicines can be given on a blue prescription and which conditions must be met.

If the drug/medication cannot be prescribed directly on a blue prescription, the doctor can apply on behalf of the patient for the patient to have this covered. This is called individual benefit.

If the doctor believes that your child should have medicine on an individual benefit, the doctor applies to HELFO. If the child needs the medicine before HELFO has had time to approve the application, you can buy the medicine yourself and ask for a specified receipt from the pharmacy. The receipt is sent to HELFO when the medicine has been approved and you will be reimbursed the costs from there. Specified receipts must contain product name, price, date of purchase and name of doctor.

Link to reimbursement for medicines, foodstuffs and medical consumables: Refund

White prescription / contribution scheme

In some cases, you can get partial coverage of expenses for prescription medicines on a white prescription through the so-called contribution scheme. Read more about how it works here: White prescription/contribution scheme.

Resolution

The first time you collect a medicine covered by HELFO, you take the decision to the pharmacy. The pharmacy will then scan in the decision. Before the pharmacy has made the decision, you cannot collect the prescription. The pharmacies can make exceptions and call HELFO to confirm that the decision is there to issue the prescription then and there.

Online pharmacy

There are many fine online pharmacies where you can order over-the-counter medicines, creams, bandages etc. at more reasonable prices than in a physical store. Many of the online pharmacies also have free shipping.

List of online pharmacies

www.123apotek.no

www.farmasiet.no

www.apotekdirekte.no

www.e-apoteket.no

www.apotekhjem.no

www.iapoteket.no

Return old medicine to the pharmacy

We at Løvemammaene strongly encourage you to hand in old medicine to the pharmacy.
It is important for the environment that we who use large quantities of medication take our responsibility.

It is uncomplicated and can be taken with you when you first order new medicines.

Read more about this here: Return old medicine

General tips

You can call your pharmacy in advance to order a prescription. The pharmacy can then prepare the order, so there will be much less waiting at the pharmacy itself.
Some local pharmacies also have a website where you can order over-the-counter medicines and store goods and use "click and collect in store".
Some local pharmacies offer 'subscribe to your regular medicines'. Check with your pharmacy if they offer it.
Medicines and medical consumables that have been delivered and taken away from the pharmacy cannot be exchanged for reuse. Talk to your pharmacy and see what applies with them and find a solution in the event of incorrect dispensing.
Write down all medicines and/or equipment that you have on a blue prescription on a list and give it to the doctor who writes prescriptions for you. Ask the doctor to delete all prescriptions and make them all over again, so that you have the same date on all prescriptions. A blue prescription is valid for 1 year at a time. It will therefore be a better arrangement for those of you who will be using the pharmacy and less work for the doctor/hospital when all prescriptions have the same expiry date. Then it is sufficient to renew the prescriptions once a year, and it is generally easier to have control.
ATTENTION! Remember that many medicines have different ways of being stored and processed, and many cannot be drawn up in advance because they deteriorate in plastic syringes, or they cannot be crushed or stored at room temperature. Always ask the pharmacist about the current medication for your child!

This article was last updated on 07.09.25