My mother’s village has no pharmacy: how can she get her medicines?

Living far from a pharmacy makes it harder to keep medication up to date, but there are legal options: from a relative collecting it with her health card to rural pharmacy outposts or delivery coordinated with a pharmacy.

There are several legal ways to do it: a relative or neighbour can collect it with her health card, she can use the village pharmacy outpost if there is one, or you can rely on a service that coordinates preparation and home delivery with a pharmacy. What is not allowed is buying prescription medicines online or receiving them by courier.

Here we explain what the law says, what options you have and how to organise things so your mother never runs out of her medication.

Can prescription medication be sent to her home online or by courier?

No. Article 3.5 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2015 prohibits the sale of prescription medicines by post or online, and also door to door sales. Dispensing is the job of authorised pharmacies, with a pharmacist involved.

Since 2023, article 3.8 of the same law has allowed regional governments to set up remote dispensing, with delivery to the home, when the person’s dependency, vulnerability or physical distance requires it. The dispensing pharmacy is responsible for transport and follow-up. How it is applied depends on each region and it has focused mainly on hospital pharmacy medicines, so ask at your mother’s health centre what is available in her area.

What is a pharmacy outpost and could there be one in her village?

A pharmacy outpost (botiquín farmacéutico) is a small dispensing point authorised in places without a pharmacy, for reasons of urgency and distance, and run by a nearby pharmacy. National law provides for it in article 86.4 and leaves the detailed rules to the regional governments.

So the conditions vary depending on where your mother lives. In the Basque Country, for example, the rules allow outposts in municipalities of fewer than 800 inhabitants without adequate pharmacy services, attached to a pharmacy in the same area, as a 2025 resolution for the municipality of Arrieta sets out. Ask at the town hall or the health centre whether there is an outpost and what its opening hours are.

Who can collect the medication for her?

Any trusted person who brings her individual health card. With electronic prescriptions, pending medication can be collected at any pharmacy, even in another region: according to the Ministry of Health, all that is needed is the health card.

This opens up a practical option: if a son or daughter lives in a city, they can collect the medication there and bring it on their next visit. For some controlled medicines, the pharmacy will record the ID number of the person collecting them. We explain this in detail in Can I collect my mother’s medication at the pharmacy with her card?

How can you make sure she never runs out?

The key is to plan ahead and reduce the number of trips. The more boxes there are to collect on different dates, the easier it is for something to run out without anyone noticing.

• Make a list of all her medicines with the approximate date each box runs out.
• Choose one regular pharmacy that knows her whole treatment.
• Check with her GP when each treatment expires on the electronic prescription, so it is renewed before it lapses.
• Ask for the medication to be prepared by the week or the month, so collections or deliveries coincide.
• Agree who flags it if something is missing and who handles each collection.

If you also live far from your mother, our guide on organising your parents’ medication from a distance may help.

A practical example: Pilar lives 15 kilometres from the nearest pharmacy

Let us take the case of Pilar, aged 81, who lives in a village of 300 people with no pharmacy. The nearest one is 15 kilometres away, Pilar no longer drives and the bus runs twice a week. She takes 6 medicines and her son lives in the provincial capital.

1. Her son asks at the town hall whether there is a pharmacy outpost: there is not.
2. He speaks to the pharmacy in the next village so it becomes her regular pharmacy and reviews her whole treatment.
3. He checks with Pilar’s GP that all her long term treatments are active on the electronic prescription.
4. He organises the medication by the month and agrees with a neighbour that, if he cannot go one month, she will collect the medication with the card.
5. He considers a service that coordinates preparation and home delivery with a pharmacy, so Pilar does not depend on the bus.

With a single collection calendar and a back-up person, Pilar no longer depends on improvisation.

How can IMA Health help you?

At IMA Health we coordinate with a specialised pharmacy so the medication is prepared by day and time of each dose, and we deliver it to the home. The pharmacy always reviews and dispenses it, and our team provides personalised follow-up of every refill and every change. Check whether we cover your mother’s area, or find out more about how the IMA Health service works.

Sources

• BOE: Royal Legislative Decree 1/2015, consolidated Law on guarantees and rational use of medicines (articles 3 and 86, in Spanish)
• Spanish Ministry of Health: interoperable electronic prescription in the National Health System (in Spanish)
• Basque Country Official Gazette: resolution of 6 May 2025 on setting up a pharmacy outpost in Arrieta, Biscay (in Spanish)

This article is for information only and does not replace advice from your doctor or pharmacist.