“Leading online pharmacy” Chemist4U last week (February 7) told C+D that new guidance around digital weight loss drug prescriptions “may lead to unnecessary bottlenecks and delays in patient access”.
Just a few days before, the GPhC published new rules banning online pharmacies from prescribing high-risk medicine – including weight loss drugs - based on online questionnaires alone.
Read more: New online pharmacy regs ‘effective immediately’ amid weight loss risks
It stressed they must “independently verify” patients’ weight and height before prescribing weight loss drugs in particular.
But now Chemist4U has warned that the “updated guidance will have a significant impact on the online pharmaceutical industry”.
Read more: From a lawyer: Online regulations - exactly what has changed?
It said that for online pharmacies that “rely solely on video consultations, this may lead to unnecessary bottlenecks and delays in patient access to treatment”.
“[This] creates barriers to accessing one of the most important medications released in our lifetime,” it added.
Read more: Wegovy: Ten deaths linked to weight loss injections, says MHRA
“Creating barriers to access often leads to patients sourcing medication from illegitimate sources, [which] are the main reported sources of patient harm since the release of the medication,” it claimed.
C+D last year reported on patients landing in hospital after obtaining weight loss drugs from Boots Online Doctor, Lloydspharmacy online doctor and Curate Health – all of which are legitimate, GPhC-registered online pharmacies.
“Unnecessary concern”
Chemist4U chief executive and pharmacist James O’Loan said that “recent reports have caused unnecessary concern among patients”.
“It’s important to note that while video consultations are an option, they are not mandatory and in many ways don’t enhance weight verification any more than specific photo upload processes,” he added.
Read more: ‘Disappointing’ new online pharmacy rules do ‘not go far enough’ warns PDA
Chemist4U claimed that online pharmacies can “confirm patient information through recent photographs, provided they can verify the individual’s identity and the photo’s recency” – but C+D has been unable to confirm this at present.
“Our top priority is patient safety,” O’Loan added.
Rules do “not go far enough”
Meanwhile, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) last week said that the newly updated online pharmacy rules “could still introduce significant risk”.
It said that the updated rules do “not go far enough to protect patients”.
Read more: PDA: GPhC consultation ‘watering down’ online pharmacy guidance
“Where there might not be access to the NHS GP patient record or where consent is not given by the patient for their GP to be contacted, there is scope for a medication to be prescribed without…vital checks being made,” it warned.
PDA head of policy Alima Batchelor added that “it is disappointing to see that there is still ambiguity” and there are “areas where the guidance is contradictory”.
