Urgent News UK–Ireland Border

Border Patients at Risk: PatientsCann Raises Concerns with UK & Ireland

PatientsCann UK has raised urgent concerns with both the UK and Republic of Ireland governments over the impossible situation facing patients whose lawful prescriptions cross a Schedule 1 border, even just to get home.

PatientsCann UKAdvocacy & Policy19 August 2025

The core problem: A prescription issued in the UK, ROI or Crown Dependencies cannot be dispensed across the border if the medicine is considered Schedule 1. Patients cannot lawfully carry these prescribed medicines across the border, even when crossing is unavoidable to travel within their own country.

Communities Most Affected

This issue disproportionately affects border communities, where travel across the border is not optional but a daily necessity:

Drummully, Co. Monaghan (ROI) can practically only be accessed via roads through Northern Ireland. Patients prescribed treatment elsewhere in ROI must cross NI to return home.
Teer, Co. Fermanagh (NI) is practically accessible only via ROI. Patients collecting prescriptions in NI must cross ROI to get home.
Roads such as the N54/A3 frequently cross between ROI and NI, making it impractical or impossible for some patients to avoid travelling across the border.

For patients in these communities, this creates an impossible situation: return home with their prescribed treatment and risk criminalisation, or forego essential medication.

Affected Areas

The Border Communities at Risk

Map illustrating the ROI–NI border region, highlighting communities such as Drummully (Co. Monaghan) and Teer (Co. Fermanagh) where patients cannot avoid crossing the border to reach their homes

ROI–Northern Ireland Border

Where the law creates an impossible journey

This map illustrates the specific border communities where patients have no practical route home without crossing into a different jurisdiction. Areas including Drummully (Co. Monaghan, ROI) and Teer (Co. Fermanagh, NI) are geographic enclaves, patients carrying legally prescribed medicines face potential criminalisation simply by travelling within their own country.

Roads such as the N54/A3 cross between ROI and NI multiple times, making border avoidance impractical or physically impossible for residents.

Connected Harms

Six Practical Problems

Patients attending appointments, clinics or pharmacies within their own jurisdiction may be unable to return home with medicines they were lawfully prescribed. This is particularly harmful for conditions that require uninterrupted dosing, epilepsy, severe chronic pain, some mental health conditions, where missed doses can lead to medical destabilisation or hospital attendance.

Patients are left unsure whether they will face enforcement action if stopped while carrying their legally prescribed medicine in a part of the neighbouring jurisdiction. This uncertainty can deter people from collecting or taking medication as prescribed. It also puts police officers and prosecutors in a difficult position with little practical guidance.

Community pharmacies and authorised couriers that deliver prescriptions, a vital service for many elderly and disabled residents, may be legally unable to complete a delivery if the quickest or only route crosses the border. This increases delivery times and costs and may leave vulnerable patients without medicines for days.