Asthma Inhaler Prescription Online — Repeat Inhalers for Diagnosed Asthma
Your inhaler is running out, you are abroad or between doctors, and your asthma is fine — that is what this is for. An EU-registered doctor reviews a 3-minute questionnaire on how controlled your asthma is, usually within 15 minutes, and renews your inhaler if it is safe to do so. Worsening asthma is not renewed online — it is assessed. €34.
- €34, one fixed fee
- Doctor review usually within 15 minutes
- Daily 7am–11pm CET
- 14 EU countries, no appointment
Repeat, not new
The questionnaire is for asthma a doctor has diagnosed and an inhaler you already use. A first diagnosis needs lung-function testing, which no questionnaire can do.
Control is what the doctor checks
Reliever use more than twice a week, night waking, or an emergency visit in the last six months mean your asthma is not controlled — and a doctor should change the treatment, not just repeat it.
Only a blue inhaler? Your repeat is still reviewed
Current guidance (GINA, since 2019) advises against treating asthma with salbutamol alone; an inhaler that also contains a steroid is safer. The doctor may suggest that change and explain it.
Asthma inhaler prescription online — key facts
| Who it is for | Adults with diagnosed asthma that is well controlled, who need a repeat of an inhaler they already use — preventer, reliever or combination |
|---|---|
| Well controlled means | Daytime symptoms and reliever use no more than twice a week, no night waking from asthma, no limit on activity, no emergency visit or oral steroid course in the last six months |
| What current guidance (GINA) recommends | A steroid inhaler for every adult with asthma; a combined steroid–formoterol inhaler (ICS-formoterol) as the reliever and, if needed, as daily treatment is preferred; salbutamol-only treatment is no longer recommended |
| Not renewed online | Asthma that is worsening or uncontrolled, a first diagnosis, an attack in progress, children, pregnancy with poor control, or a request to change class of inhaler without assessment |
| In an attack | Reliever not lasting four hours, difficulty speaking, blue lips, or no improvement after ten puffs of salbutamol through a spacer (with an ICS-formoterol reliever, follow your action plan — never more than six puffs at once or twelve in a day) is an emergency. Mobi Doctor must not be used in a medical emergency — call 112. |
| The prescription | In English, naming the active ingredient and strength, carrying a verification code; recognised at pharmacies across the EU under Directive 2011/24/EU; several months when the doctor agrees; the pharmacy may dispense a different brand of the same medicine, sometimes in a different device |
| Price and time | €34, one fee; an EU-registered doctor reviews the questionnaire usually within 15 minutes, daily 7am–11pm CET; full refund if the inhaler cannot be renewed online |
What is the current treatment for asthma?
Every adult with asthma should use an inhaled corticosteroid. GINA's preferred approach is a single budesonide–formoterol inhaler used as the reliever and, when needed, as daily maintenance, because treating asthma with salbutamol alone raises the risk of severe attacks. Control is judged by reliever use, night waking and activity limits, and treatment is stepped up or down at review, never repeated unchanged when control is poor.
How to get an inhaler prescription online — what happens after you press start
1. The questionnaire — about 3 minutes
It asks whether asthma has been diagnosed, which asthma medicines you take, and how well controlled it is — symptoms by day and night, night waking, daily activities. It then covers any lung-function test, reliever use in the last four weeks, emergency visits in the last six months, recent oral steroids, other conditions, all the medicines you take, allergies, pregnancy, and which asthma medicine has worked for you before.
2. The doctor's review
The doctor reads it personally. Well-controlled asthma on an established inhaler is renewed — the same active ingredient and strength — and the doctor may suggest, and explain, a move away from salbutamol-only treatment in line with current guidance. Answers showing poor control, a recent attack or oral steroids, or a request for a new class of inhaler, are not renewed from a questionnaire: the doctor moves you to a video consultation, at no extra charge, where the treatment can be stepped up properly.
3. The pharmacy
The prescription appears in your Mobi Doctor profile in English, naming the active ingredient and strength, so a pharmacy you choose in any of the 14 EU countries can dispense the equivalent — sometimes under a different brand or in a different device, which the pharmacist will show you. You pay the pharmacy for the inhaler; Mobi Doctor does not sell or dispense medicines.
Using your reliever most days, waking at night, or an attack, emergency visit or steroid course in the last six months? Book a video consultation so the treatment can be changed — and in a severe attack, call 112.
Right for the Express Assessment if
- A doctor has diagnosed your asthma and you already use the inhaler you are asking for
- You use your reliever no more than twice a week and do not wake at night with asthma
- No attack, emergency visit or oral steroid course in the last six months
- You are 18 or over and in one of the 14 EU countries Mobi Doctor covers
Book a video consultation instead if
- You use your reliever more than twice a week, get through a reliever inhaler in a month, or wake at night with wheeze or cough
- An attack, an emergency visit or a course of steroid tablets in the last six months
- Asthma has never been formally diagnosed, or you want a new type of inhaler
- Your inhaler seems to be working less well than it used to
- You are pregnant and your asthma is not fully controlled
- Breathlessness now that the reliever is not fixing — call 112
List every medicine you take and answer each question fully — the doctor's decision depends on it. Your answers are confidential.
Prefer to listen? The Mobi Doctor podcast episode on asthma.
Do you need a prescription for an asthma inhaler in the EU?
Yes. Every asthma inhaler — salbutamol (Ventolin), the steroid preventers, and the combination inhalers — is prescription-only in all 14 countries Mobi Doctor covers. The reason is not bureaucracy: asthma kills when it is under-treated, and the commonest pattern in asthma deaths is heavy reliever use with no steroid inhaler and no review. A prescription means a doctor has looked at how controlled your asthma is before another inhaler is handed over. The Express Assessment makes that review take three minutes of your time when your asthma is stable — and forces a proper conversation when it is not.
Why a doctor asks how often you use the blue inhaler
The GINA strategy, which most European asthma guidance follows, defines control by four questions over the last four weeks: daytime symptoms more than twice a week, any night waking, reliever use more than twice a week, any limit on activity. None means well controlled; one or two means partly controlled; three or four means uncontrolled. Reliever use is the single most telling answer, because salbutamol relieves the symptom and does nothing for the inflammation behind it — so someone using it most days is having daily asthma attacks in slow motion. That person should not have a repeat prescription; they need their preventer stepped up, their technique checked, and a review. The questionnaire asks all four questions and the doctor acts on the answers.
Salbutamol alone is no longer recommended: what GINA says about ICS-formoterol
Since 2019 GINA has recommended that every adult with asthma receives an inhaled corticosteroid, and has advised against treating asthma with a salbutamol inhaler on its own, because it increases the risk of severe attacks and death. The preferred approach is a single combination inhaler containing budesonide (or beclometasone) and formoterol, used as the reliever — one puff when needed — and, for more than mild asthma, also as regular maintenance. Formoterol works as fast as salbutamol, and every puff for symptoms delivers steroid to the airways at the moment they are inflamed, which is why this approach roughly halves severe attacks compared with salbutamol-only treatment. If you still use only a blue inhaler, the doctor may recommend this change; changing class of inhaler, though, is a conversation, so it happens in a video consultation rather than from the questionnaire alone.
Inhaler technique, spacers and what to do in an attack
Most inhalers are used wrongly, and a wrongly used inhaler is a lower dose. Pressurised inhalers (the classic aerosol) work best through a spacer, breathing in slowly and deeply as you press; dry-powder inhalers need a fast, hard breath in and no spacer. Rinse your mouth after a steroid inhaler. A written asthma action plan — what to do when symptoms rise — is something the doctor can set out. In an attack with a salbutamol reliever: sit up, take one puff every 30 to 60 seconds through a spacer, up to ten puffs; with an ICS-formoterol reliever follow your action plan — no more than six puffs at once and twelve in a day; if there is no improvement, you cannot speak in sentences, or your lips are blue, call 112. Getting worse after starting a course of oral steroids, or needing the reliever every few hours, is also a reason to be seen the same day.
Using the prescription at a pharmacy anywhere in the EU
The prescription is issued in English by an EU-registered doctor, names the active ingredient rather than a brand, and carries a verification code the pharmacist can check at mobidoctor.eu/verify. A prescription issued in one EU country must be recognised in another (Directive 2011/24/EU); the active-ingredient name is what makes that work at the counter. Dispensing is the pharmacist's decision under the rules of the country you are in, and depends on the medicine being available there. If you need a supply covering several months, say so in the questionnaire — the doctor decides the quantity. Inhaler brands and devices differ between countries: the prescription names the active ingredient and strength, and the pharmacist dispenses the local equivalent and shows you how it works. The other conditions the Express Assessment covers — 13 in all, plus repeat prescriptions — are listed on the online doctor prescription page.
Read the full asthma guide: symptoms, causes, tests and treatment
Sources: Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) — Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention, current report · European Lung Foundation / European Respiratory Society — patient information on asthma
Start Express Assessment — €34 About 3 minutes to complete.
Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
Asthma inhaler prescription online — your questions answered
Medical Build Order
About 3 minutes of questions — then the doctor takes over. No waiting room.