The ability to order a prescription straight to your door is invaluable for some patients - but to what extent is the rise of online pharmacies threatening brick-and-mortars?
And without the physical presence of a pharmacist, is patient safety at risk?
As part of C+D’s Counter View 25 survey, we asked readers for their opinions on this fast-growing sector of the industry - and responses were, perhaps unsurprisingly, mostly negative.
Regulation
A key issue for many respondents was whether regulation can keep up with online pharmacies.
One said: “Regulation - what regulation? You could buy anything from anyone.”
“Patients do not have the skills to take their own safety seriously. It requires a healthcare professional’s guidance to diagnose and treat appropriately.”
Read more: Lloyds Online Doctor expands Ireland delivery amid ‘GP shortage’
“Regulation clearly is rubbish,” a similarly sceptical response read. “There are too many headlines about problems with online pharmacies”.
And another reader noted that weight loss jabs have further highlighted the need for robust regulation.
“Mounjaro has [shown] how easy it is for some patients to be supplied medication that is not appropriate,” they said.
Read more: What did you think about GPs? (and is ‘overpaid and lazy’ unfair?)
Some responses also cited concerns about patients not receiving their medications on time - or sometimes at all - after ordering them online.
One person said they “see all too often people left without medication [from] online pharmacies”, while another said they get “a lot of emergency supply requests for items not supplied on time”.
“Harms brick-and-mortars”
One reader acknowledged that online pharmacies are “useful for patients wanting or needing free delivery” for their medicines, but said this “harms the business of brick-and-mortar community pharmacies”.
Several others shared this concern, noting that patients using online pharmacies for their medications still relied on in-person pharmacists for information or guidance - something that doesn’t support the pharmacy financially.
Read more: ‘Deplorable’: Online pharmacist suspended over 70k prescriptions
Online pharmacies “offer less patient care and support,” said one reader. “I often have patients from Pharmacy2U and other online pharmacies trying to get advice and support from me in a bricks and mortar pharmacy.”
“Unfortunately for them, they are not my patient, so are turned away unless their issue seems urgent and serious,” they added.
Read more: ASA issues multiple rulings against Juniper for promoting POMs
“This issue is becoming more frequent,” they continued. “[Online pharmacies] are simply there to extract money from the NHS by doing the absolute minimum, and they should have a separate contract and reimbursement.”
Another reader told us the issue is worse when it comes to patients starting new medicines, for which online pharmacies don’t give “the same level of counselling” that in-person pharmacists would.
“I get phone calls from patients with questions about meds that they received from online pharmacies, but it’s easier to call us or pop in for the information,” they said. “That’s a free and time-consuming service I’m giving for zero NHS funding.”
Read more: AI firm dispenses ‘record’ 41,600 items in one month
One respondent noted that online pharmacies have some benefits, “particularly in terms of repeat medication” - but said that as with automated prescription lockers, “it erodes the opportunities for advice, guidance and interventions to be made”.
“Nobody thinks about how a patient will be helped in an emergency, then it is left for a real pharmacy to pick up the pieces,” another stressed.
And there was a gloomy prediction from one reader, who anticipates that the rise of online pharmacies will drastically change what the job market looks like for pharmacists.
Read more: Medical cannabis: Is the pharmacy sector ready to roll?
“The centralisation of pharmacy means the work will shift,” they said. “If you don’t live near a hub or warehouse, pharmacy staff will not have work, especially in more rural areas.”
Not everyone is so resistant to the online pharmacy boom, though. One respondent told us that online pharmacies “are moving with times where [community pharmacies] are left behind”.
“I don’t agree with community pharmacies whining when they should be focusing on increasing private services,” they said.
