What is an online pharmacy and how are they regulated?

W

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DECEMBER 2011

However, an online pharmacy is not just a retailer that sells the same items as your local chemist, without any of the same regulations.

All pharmacies based within the UK, including those that operate online, are bound by a set of rules and regulations, as set out and enforced by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. In addition to this, and to make sure that the regulations are being adhered to, all UK based pharmacies (including those online) are inspected on a regular basis. All legitimate pharmacies will also have been provided with a registered pharmacy number. For example, chemist.net’s Registered Pharmacy number is 1100545. This number can be checked on the General Pharmaceutical Society’s website – pharmacyregulation.org – to make sure that it is genuine.

In addition to this the supply of pharmaceutical products within the UK must be overseen by a pharmacist at all times. All pharmacists within the UK must also be registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and will have been given a registration number. This number can also be checked on the General Pharmaceutical Society’s website, where details of any fitness to practice issues concerning that pharmacist will also be listed, if there are any. This allows customers to be certain that the person who is dispensing their drugs to them knows what they are talking about.

Legitimate, registered pharmacies also always ask to see the original prescription before any prescription only medicine can be dispensed and dispatched. This is to make sure that the medicines that the consumer is receiving are the correct medicines for their condition and that the quantities that are being sent out are suitable. The pharmacist should also be available for you to speak to if you have any queries about your prescription or the medicines that you have received.

It is also important that patient records are kept confidential at all times. Legitimate, registered online chemists will have systems in place to make sure that personal records remain secure and will never share a patient’s information with any other party, without first having gained their permission.

It is also important that the required medicine reaches the person that it was originally intended for safely and securely. For this reason, online pharmacies will use a courier or signed for and tracked service. This is in order to make sure that only the person that the medicine has been prescribed to receives that medication, so that is being taken by the patient themselves and for the condition it was intended to treat.

Online pharmacies and chemists are a quick and convenient way for consumers to purchase and receive the goods that they need. Legitimate UK-based online pharmacies will be registered in the same way as normal pharmacies and will be run under the supervision of a registered pharmacist, so there is no need for consumers to worry that their medication is not being treated in the correct manner.

About the author

Wendy Atkin

Chemist.net is a leading UK internet pharmacy and is Royal Pharmaceutical Society registered. Always offering thousands of top brand medicines and supplying exceptional value for vitamins, health supplements, skincare, beauty, baby, sexual health and mobility products at superb prices. Trust and use for repeat orders of Ensure, Fortisip, Bio-Oil, glucosamine and Omega-3. Chemist.net provides fast, discrete shipping with DHL with great service.

By Wendy Atkin