Online doctor's service ordered to pay £13k for providing unregistered services

[helvella]

We often see members asking about pharmacies which offer some form of consultation before prescribing and supplying prescription-only or pharmacy medicines. This story is about one with a very questionable way of working:

Online doctor's service ordered to pay £13k for providing unregistered services

18 Feb 2022

News

The company was fines £3,500 and had to pay over £10,000 in other costs

An online doctor’s service has been ordered to pay over £13,000 after pleading guilty to providing services without a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration.

Pharmacorp Ltd, also known as Medicine Direct, was fined £3,500 at Tameside Magistrates’ Court today (February 18) and ordered to pay £10,000 plus a £170 victim surcharge.

It was slapped with the fine for carrying out regulated activities without a CQC registration between 1 August 2018 and 1 July 2019.

General Medical Council-registered doctors based in Romania prescribed medication including co-codamol, pregabalin and gabapentin that was sent to patients via post from Pharmacorp’s premises in Stockport, following a patient's completion of an online questionnaire, according to the CQC.

But Pharmacorp’s website was “misleading” because it suggested that UK-based doctors were being used, the regulator added.

C+D has approached Pharmacorp for comment.

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

I do not know if you need to sign up to have access - or not.

[shaws Administrator]

Some people are so unwell that they have to search the internet hoping for help and safe advice.

[humanbean]

I was able to read it without being registered on the website.

I'm just thankful that thyroid hormones weren't included in the list of prescription-only products that were being prescribed inappropriately.

Given that prescribing thyroid hormones is "controversial" to some doctors in the medical profession I suspect that it would have caused unwelcome scrutiny of people buying from abroad and importing, even though this is entirely legal under current legislation.