Distance-selling pharmacies must be clear about who is accountable for each part of their service, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has said in draft guidance.

Pharmacy delivery services carried an "increased risk" of their medicines being lost or handed to the wrong patient and all staff involved needed "clear lines of responsibility" to an accountable individual, the GPhC said in draft guidance on internet and distance-selling pharmacies published last week (September 17).

The guidance had been designed to reflect some of the "dramatic changes" to pharmacy delivery over the past 10 years, with alternative ways of providing pharmacy services becoming "increasingly common", the regulator said. These included ‘click-and-collect', home delivery, mail order, ‘hub-and-spoke' and online services.

Distance-selling pharmacies may supply medicines to a larger number of patients than a traditional pharmacy and their premises must be "fit for purpose to reflect the scale of [their] work", the GPhC said.

"If you consider automating certain activities, there must be adequate space to accommodate robot technology safely. You may also need to make sure you have suitable areas within your registered pharmacy to safely dispatch medicines to patients," it said.

Pharmacies should also be able to show that their arrangements with medical or non-medical prescribers did not result in conflicts of interest or restrict a patient's choice of pharmacy, the GPhC stressed.

Websites must "prominently" include their GPhC registration number and may also wish to include other details such as the name of the owner and details of the pharmacy responsible for preparing the medicines, it said. Links to other businesses' websites should be checked for their legitimacy and patients must be certain which business provide which service, the GPhC said.

The regulator reminded pharmacists that, under EU regulations, all companies selling prescription and non-prescription medicines through a website will have to display a logo from July 2015.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said the regulatory body was keen to hear pharmacists' views on whether the draft guidelines struck the right balance between "supporting innovation" and providing safe pharmacy services.

A final version of the guidance is due to be published in 2015, the GPhC added. Pharmacists have until December 10 to give feedback online or by emailing [email protected].

	What do you think of the GPhC's proposals?