Starting today, Monday June 16, with the goal of reducing the hardship of patients receiving High-Cost Drugs, their home delivery service begins, with EOPYY being the first insurance organization in Europe to offer the High-Cost Drug Home Delivery service, and Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis commenting on the matter, calling it “one of the biggest changes in healthcare service provision“.
EOPYY: Home delivery of high-cost drugs starts today – Adonis Georgiadis’ announcement
In a post on platform “X”, Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis stated among other things that: “The NHS is changing and becoming better and more humane”. Specifically, in his post he mentions: “The day for one of the biggest changes in healthcare service provision to patients has arrived! From today begins the home delivery of High-Cost Drugs to any patient who wishes it throughout the country. An end to the suffering of patients and their relatives in queues of shame whether in heat or cold. And our interventions will continue with our immediate cooperation with private pharmacies (announcements next week). The NHS is changing and becoming better and more humane”.
Η μέρα για μία από τις μεγαλύτερες αλλαγές στην παροχή υπηρεσιών Υγείας προς τους ασθενείς έφτασε! Από σήμερα ξεκινά η αποστολή των Φαρμάκων Υψηλού Κόστους κατ´οίκον σε όποιον ασθενή το επιθυμεί σε ολόκληρη την επικράτεια. Τέλος στην ταλαιπωρία των ασθενών και των συγγενών τους… pic.twitter.com/EzIhe6RE7N
— Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης (@AdonisGeorgiadi) June 16, 2025
The “home delivery” service to facilitate citizens
Today more than 120,000 patients with serious conditions visit EOPYY pharmacies monthly to obtain high-cost drugs. Sometimes waiting in queues or traveling long distances. EOPYY’s new service for home delivery of High-Cost Drugs comes to facilitate the daily lives of these patients. The “Home Delivery” service for high-cost drugs was launched as a pilot last spring, serving patients suffering from specific conditions, and now enters the phase of universal implementation, covering all patients who fill such prescriptions.
The “Home Delivery” drug service affects approximately 139,000 patients who visit EOPYY pharmacies on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. “72% of our fellow citizens are in Athens and Thessaloniki and 41% of them have chronic conditions, which means their daily life is already burdened. This way, not only do drugs reach the patient’s door but we improve their daily life, their quality of life, reduce hardship and help them receive timely pharmaceutical treatment which is important for treatment compliance. We care for the patient, strengthen the family and their caregivers”, EOPYY president Theano Karpodini told APE-MPE.
She notes that there is no exception for any condition, “except for some foreign drugs, those distributed through IFET that don’t have circulation permits in Europe, so these won’t be available for home delivery. Even in this case there is provision and they will be made available upon special order in the patient’s name”.
What patients need to do to receive their drugs at home
Each patient can now, if they wish, without any charge whatsoever, receive their drugs, whether they are cold chain (refrigerated) or not, at their home, office, or even their summer house during summer months, within 24 to 48 hours depending on distance.
All they need is to have an electronic prescription, digital consultation and to have activated the “Home Delivery” service digitally, through the EOPYY platform (https://www.eopyy.gov.gr/). Also, patients who want “Home Delivery” drugs have the option to receive them at their home or authorize someone else to collect them on their behalf. Prescriptions are checked and filled by pharmacists, while drug distribution is handled by a certified company.
Step-by-step process
The first way is to visit the EOPYY website (https://www.eopyy.gov.gr/) where they select high-cost drug collection. What they need is their social security number (AMKA) and tax number (AFM). Then, step-by-step, they verify their phone number, mobile or landline, their email and mainly their address and enter the prescription number they want to receive at home.
If someone cannot access the platform then they can call the EOPYY call center (2108110500) and the new call center at 18181 and with the help of the Organization’s staff make their request electronically by providing their tax number and social security number for confirmation. The details are automatically confirmed in the system and thus with staff help they can make their request without needing access themselves.
Patients have the ability to track and access all phases of their prescription status and will receive messages. From the moment someone submits a request for home delivery, that specific prescription number will not be filled at the pharmacy because its delivery will have been scheduled. The timeframe is 24-48 hours depending on distance.
“Home delivery of high-cost drugs is an extremely complex process with many variables and quite complicated interoperability aspects. With our people at EOPYY and our external partners we tried, and believe we have succeeded, to create an extremely friendly, user-friendly process for submitting requests for patients who want to use our platform”, Ms. Karpodini states and concludes: “At EOPYY we facilitate the lives of those who are already fighting their own daily battle and we constantly strive for a health system that stands by the citizen. For us at EOPYY, the patient citizen is and will continue to be a priority. As a modern and effective Organization, we focus methodically, steadily and decisively always on their optimal service. Every day, we protect the public interest, strengthen the patient, create social added value for the public health system”.
