Guidance for pharmacy services online

This is not my writing and is copied from the General Pharmaceutical Council, UK.


"We have strengthened our guidance for pharmacy owners providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet, to help make sure people can obtain medicines safely online.

Making sure medicines are clinically appropriate for patients – online pharmacies will have to make sure:

• there are robust processes in place to carry out identity checks on people obtaining medicines
• the pharmacy team can identify requests for medicines that are inappropriate, including by being able to identify multiple orders to the same address or orders using the same payment details
• the pharmacy websites do not allow a patient to choose a prescription-only medicine and its quantity before there has been an appropriate consultation with a prescriber

Further safeguards for certain categories of prescription-only medicines

Further safeguards will have to be in place before supplying certain categories of medicines, including; antimicrobials, medicines liable to abuse, overuse or misuse or where there is a risk of addiction, and non-surgical cosmetic medicinal products, to make sure that they are clinically appropriate.

Transparency and patient choice

Pharmacy owners will have to supply more details about where the service and health professionals involved in prescribing and supplying the medicine are based and how they are regulated, so people have enough information to make an informed decision about using the service and can raise concerns about the service if they need to.

Regulatory oversight

Pharmacy owners working with prescribers or prescribing services operating outside the UK must take steps to successfully manage the additional risks that this may create, including assuring themselves that the prescriber is working within national prescribing guidelines for the UK.
 

These new safeguards received strong support overall from more than 800 individuals and organisations responding to a discussion paper published last year.

Please help us by promoting this new guidance to your colleagues and through your networks."