Nearly half of pharmacists have seen a rise in the number of patients buying prescription medicines through illicit websites, a survey by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has revealed.

Forty one per cent of 2,500 pharmacists that took part in the survey, run with ITV's Daybreak programme, had seen an increase in the number of patients obtaining P medicines from illegal websites over the past few years and 80 per cent said they were seeing examples of patients self-diagnosing and self-treating via the internet, the RPS said on Friday (March 21).

Fifty two per cent said they had suspected a patient of being addicted to a P medicine they were taking without their GP's knowledge. Sixty per cent of pharmacists thought the overall number of patients addicted to these medicines had increased in recent years.

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	RPS spokesperson Neal Patel said the society was "deeply concerned" by the findings. "It's a bad idea to bypass advice from a health professional before taking prescription medicines. Diagnosing with Dr Google can lead to dangerous decisions about your health, including becoming addicted to the medicines you decide to take," Mr Patel said.

RPS English Pharmacy Board member Sibby Buckle appeared on Daybreak on Friday to defend the UK's approach to medicine licensing and regulation. She told the public not to source medicines illegally online just because they were embarrassed about a health condition.

"I want to reassure everyone today that it doesn't matter what you're coming to talk to us about, we've seen it all," she said.

MHRA senior policy advisor for enforcement Lynda Scammell told the programme that the watchdog was "not powerless to act" and had been "instrumental" in closing down more than 1,200 illegal websites in the last year.

Last month, a C+D reader poll revealed that one in three pharmacists suspect a patient of having an OTC medicine addiction on a daily basis. Only 10 per cent believed they came across this addiction less than once a month.

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