Survey on guidance for registered pharmacies providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet

We asked for views on changes we proposed to our guidance for registered pharmacies on providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet.

Over a 3-week period, we asked for views on changes we proposed to our guidance for registered pharmacies on providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet, which further improve patient safety. This guidance explains what we expect the pharmacy owner and Superintendent Pharmacist to consider before deciding whether any parts of their pharmacy service can be, or can continue to be, provided safely and effectively at a distance (including on the internet), rather than in the traditional face-to-face way.

About our proposals

We sought views on the following changes: 

Strengthening safeguards for people using online services:

We proposed to include further examples of medicines to our list of medicines requiring extra safeguards. These included medicines which have a high risk of fatality or serious harm to a patient if taken in overdose, medicines requiring physical examination before a prescribing decision is made, and ‘black triangle’ medicines.

Due to their risk of misuse, we also proposed to add medicines used for weight management and to achieve weight loss, to the list of examples of medicines that should not be supplied unless extra safeguards have been put in place to make sure they are clinically appropriate, and are not suitable to be prescribed using a questionnaire model alone. 

We proposed additional safeguards to those already in place in the guidance, to help strengthen the protection for patients and the public using online pharmacies, and also proposed to provide further guidance for prescribers to follow in circumstances where the person does not have a regular prescriber such as a GP, or if the person has not given consent to the prescriber to share information with the person’s GP. 

Selecting the appropriate mode of consultation: 

We proposed to include more guidance for pharmacy owners and Superintendent Pharmacists about what they need to consider when deciding on the appropriate mode of consultation to use for different services or medicines, to deliver safe and effective care.

This emphasised that there should be a means to allow two-way communication between the prescriber and the person when needed, and that some medicines are not suitable to be prescribed using an online questionnaire alone. 

We also proposed to provide further guidance for the prescriber on what they should do to verify the information that is provided to them by the person for some medicines. We gave an example of the importance of independently verifying a person’s weight, height and/or body mass index when prescribing medicines being used for weight loss. This will help to safeguard vulnerable people who may misuse the medication. 

Superintendent pharmacists and pharmacy owners both responsible for meeting the guidance
We proposed that the Superintendent Pharmacist (where there is one) would also be responsible for meeting the guidance.

Being able to select a preferred prescription medicine during a consultation: 

We proposed that the pharmacy website and the websites of associated companies should be arranged so that a person has an appropriate consultation with a prescriber before any supply of a prescription-only medicine is made.  

The website could allow people to indicate their preferred choice of medicine, for example a preferred brand or formulation, before the consultation. However, it should be made clear that the decisions about treatment are for both the prescriber and the person to consider together during the consultation.

We summarised what we heard through our engagement in an analysis report, which is available to download from this page.

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