Healthmail is the HSE’s secure email service for healthcare providers. When your GP, consultant or other prescriber uses it, your prescription travels straight from their computer to our pharmacy. There is nothing for you to carry, photograph or lose. Here is how it works, how to ask for it, and what happens once your prescription lands with us in Portlaoise.
In 30 seconds
- Healthmail is the HSE’s national secure clinical email service. Only healthcare providers can hold an account. Patients cannot.
- Ask your prescriber to send your prescription by Healthmail to Laois Pharmacy, Lyster Square, Portlaoise. We are in the Healthmail directory.
- Our pharmacist checks it and we message or call you when it is ready. Collect at Lyster Square and pay then, or ask us about delivery.
- No paper is needed for a Healthmail prescription. If you have a paper prescription instead, send us a photo on WhatsApp and bring the original when you collect.
What is Healthmail?
Healthmail is the HSE’s national secure clinical email service. It lets healthcare professionals send and receive patient information securely, as an alternative to ordinary email or fax. Users get an @healthmail.ie address. The service runs inside a private, bounded network, so only approved health service providers can send and receive, and the connections between mail servers are encrypted.
GPs and practice staff, community pharmacies, dentists, optometrists, consultants, physiotherapists and nursing homes can register. The HSE lists prescription transfer as one of its main uses.
Why it matters for your prescription
Irish law allows a prescriber to send a prescription to a pharmacy electronically through a national electronic prescription transfer system approved by the HSE. The rules were introduced in 2020, and Citizens Information confirms that GPs and consultants can email prescriptions to pharmacists. Healthmail is the system used.
For you, the difference is practical. A Healthmail prescription arrives in our inbox within minutes of your appointment. There is no paper to collect from the surgery, nothing to drop in to us, and no risk of a prescription going through the wash.
Who can send a prescription by Healthmail?
Any prescriber with a Healthmail account: your GP, a hospital or private consultant, a dentist, a nurse prescriber employed by a health service provider, or a registered online doctor service. You cannot get an account yourself. Pharmacies do not write prescriptions, with one exception: under the Common Conditions Service a pharmacist can supply treatment for eight common conditions after a consultation in the pharmacy.
How to ask your GP to send it to us
If you are moving to us from another pharmacy, ask your GP to send your next prescription to us rather than asking the other pharmacy to forward it. A Healthmail prescription that has already gone to one pharmacy can only be passed on in exceptional cases.
What happens when your prescription arrives
Our pharmacist checks the prescription against your record: the dose, how it fits with anything else you take, and whether anything needs clarifying with the prescriber. We then prepare your medicines and message you. Most prescriptions are ready within a few hours during opening hours. If a medicine has to be ordered in, it usually arrives the next working day and we will tell you.
Collecting in Portlaoise
Collect at 1 Dunamaise House, Lyster Square, Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm and Saturday 9.30am to 6pm, and pay when you collect. Bring your medical card or Drugs Payment Scheme card the first time so we can record your details. Our guides to the medical card at the pharmacy and the Drugs Payment Scheme explain what each covers. Opening hours are on our Portlaoise pharmacy page.
Delivery instead of collection
When you ask us to, and our pharmacist agrees it is suitable, we can deliver prescription medicines to an address in the Republic of Ireland. Medicines that must be kept in a fridge go by tracked, temperature-controlled courier for €10, usually arriving within 24 to 48 hours of dispatch, and must be signed for by you or someone you name. Medicines that do not need a fridge can be delivered too; we tell you the cost and timing before we send them. We only take payment for a prescription delivery after our pharmacist has checked the prescription and spoken to you. Full details are on our delivery page.
Repeat prescriptions
Tell us once that you would like your repeats managed and we will remind you before your medicines run out. Since 1 March 2024 a prescriber can issue a prescription valid for up to 12 months, and a pharmacist can extend a 6-month prescription for a further 6 months where the pharmacist considers it appropriate. That means fewer trips to the surgery for stable, long-term medicines.
Healthmail, paper or photo: which should you use?
Healthmail
- Sent by the prescriber straight to us
- Nothing to carry or bring in
- Suits repeats, hospital clinics and online doctor services
Paper prescription
- Hand it in at the counter
- Collect later the same day, or wait
- We need the original to hand over your medicine
Photo on WhatsApp
- Photograph a paper prescription, front and back
- We prepare it before you arrive
- Bring the original when you collect
Our WhatsApp prescription service and prescription refill page explain the paper and photo routes in more detail.
Private prescriptions from online doctor services
Registered online doctor services in Ireland usually send prescriptions by Healthmail to the pharmacy you name. Give them “Laois Pharmacy, Portlaoise” and then message us so we know to expect it. Our pharmacist checks that the prescription is valid for dispensing in Ireland before we supply anything. With a private prescription you pay for the medicine plus a dispensing fee; ask us for the price in advance. If the medicine needs to be kept cold, the €10 tracked cold-chain delivery above applies. Our weight management page explains how prescriptions for that programme are handled.
Expecting a Healthmail prescription?
Message us your name and date of birth and we will watch for it, prepare it and let you know the moment it is ready.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a Healthmail account as a patient?
No. Healthmail accounts are only issued to healthcare providers such as GPs, pharmacies, dentists, optometrists and consultants. Your prescriber sends the prescription on your behalf, and you simply tell them which pharmacy to send it to.
Do I need a paper copy if my GP sent my prescription by Healthmail?
No. The Healthmail prescription is the prescription. We dispense from it and keep the record in the pharmacy. Paper is only involved when your prescriber gives you a paper prescription in the first place.
How do I know you received my prescription?
We message or call you when it is ready. If you have not heard from us within a few hours of your appointment during opening hours, send a WhatsApp to 085 840 7548 with your name and date of birth and we will check our Healthmail inbox straight away.
Can my GP send a prescription to Laois Pharmacy if I do not live in Portlaoise?
Yes. Any prescriber with a Healthmail account can send a prescription to us. You can collect in Portlaoise, or ask us about delivery to an address in the Republic of Ireland, which our pharmacist agrees case by case.
Can I move a Healthmail prescription from another pharmacy to you?
Only in exceptional cases, because the prescription has already been sent to that pharmacy. The simplest route is to ask your GP to send your next prescription to Laois Pharmacy instead.
How long is a prescription valid in Ireland?
Since 1 March 2024 a prescriber can issue a prescription valid for up to 12 months. If yours is for 6 months, a pharmacist can extend it for a further 6 months where appropriate, up to 12 months in total. Some medicines cannot be extended, and prescriptions for other periods, such as one week, cannot be extended either.
Sources
- Health Service Executive, Healthmail: secure clinical email, who can use it and what it is used for: healthservice.hse.ie.
- Healthmail, frequently asked questions: healthmail.ie.
- Citizens Information, Prescribed drugs and medicines (electronic prescriptions, validity, pharmacist extensions): citizensinformation.ie.
- S.I. No. 98/2020, Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) (Amendment) Regulations 2020: irishstatutebook.ie.
- Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Internet Supply overview (prescription medicines may not be sold online): psi.ie.
General information for people in Ireland, correct as far as we know for November 2026. Prescription rules can change, so ask our pharmacists if you are unsure about your own prescription.
