With people of all ages maximising smartphones and the internet, more and more individuals may opt to order prescriptions online. But what should you look out for when choosing a UK online pharmacy and are there any risks when buying medication online? Read on to discover more.
Risks when buying medicines online
Just as self-diagnosing is dangerous, any website that allows you to buy medication online from them, but that isn’t a registered pharmacy carries a potential risk. These potential risks include the medicine being:
- unsuitable for you
- the incorrect dosage for your needs
- the cause of unpleasant side-effects
- dangerous when it interacts with any other medication you take, foods in your diet, or other medical conditions you have
- past its best-before date
- diluted
- fake
How to ensure you’re safe when ordering prescriptions online
For prescription-only medicines, any UK online pharmacy must receive a legally valid prescription (a formal communication between a registered healthcare professional to a pharmacist, authorising them to dispense a certain prescription drug to a specific patient) before releasing the medication to you. What this means is, you’ll require a paper prescription or an electronic prescription (the most common form now, especially ideal if you take regularly prescribed medication) from the Electronic Prescription Services (EPS) or from your doctor or another healthcare professional.
Electronic prescriptions:An electronic prescription involves your prescription, once you receive it, being electronically sent to the pharmacy you’ve selected – conveniently removing the need for you to visit your GP practice to collect a paper repeat prescription to give to your pharmacy.
Paper prescriptions:If you have a paper prescription you may wish to post it to your pharmacy, but email prescriptions won’t be accepted by reputable registered online pharmacies. Once your chosen pharmacy has received your paper or electronic prescription, your medicine can be dispensed and sent to you.
Online pharmacy prescriber services:
Another option is to choose a registered and reputable online pharmacy who offer prescriber services, where you have an online consultation and the health professional who conducts it sends your prescription to a pharmacy on your behalf for dispensing.
No matter if you opt for a UK online pharmacy that provides prescriber services or not, the key is all your prescribed medication should only be taken under the guidance of a qualified and registered healthcare professional.
It’s because certain medications have such significant potential to cause harm if they’re taken in the wrong form/dose or by the wrong person for the wrong reasons, that the responsibility for issuing and monitoring them and their effects on any individual patient must be diligently taken on by a qualified expert prescriber. A doctor or other healthcare practitioner who has undergone additional training and certification in prescribing can be classed as an qualified expert prescriber. For these reasons, medication with such potential is only available on prescription only.
Making sure you only take prescribed medication under the guidance of a qualified and registered healthcare professional will help you avoid suffering the possible risks outlined above.
What do we mean by a registered UK online pharmacy?
As spam emails selling cheap medicine plague our inboxes, it can sometimes be tricky to tell a registered online pharmacy from a suspicious commercial one. Viagra for erectile dysfunction and Lipitor (Atorvastatin) for reducing cholesterol, for example, are often sold cheaply online without the reassuring advice of a pharmacist.
One reliable way to distinguish a questionable online pharmacy from a registered one is to check if the pharmacy is registered with the voluntary General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) internet pharmacy logo scheme. The scheme highlights legitimate online pharmacies who have joined, so you can have peace of mind that you’re ordering safe and genuine medication online.
You can use the GPhC’s online register to search for a pharmacy’s GPhC number (sometimes listed at the bottom of their website or on their About page) or their trading name and town/postcode to check if an online pharmacy’s website is managed by a registered pharmacy that complies with UK standards and is legally permitted to sell medicines to people. Registered pharmacies will have registered and qualified healthcare professionals running their online consultations if they run the prescriber services, mentioned above.
How does online pharmacy delivery work?
Online pharmacy delivery, such as through our online pharmacy partners, can take between four and ten days, so it’s always wise to order your repeat prescription well before you’re due to start your next batch. Most online pharmacies deliver to any UK address, so you could choose your office, family member or your own home – whichever location you prefer, and often can change your delivery address when you place your next prescription order, for instance, if you’ve recently moved house. The majority of online pharmacies will use tracked delivery, so you’ll receive updates when your nominated pharmacy has received your prescription from your GP and when it’s on its way to you.
Are online pharmacies free to buy medication online from?
Although it’ll vary, our online pharmacy partners, such as Chemist4U, Pharmacy2U and PillTime, charge no cost for their services, including delivery, and their services don’t cost the NHS anything. Like most pharmacies, our partners provide services for patients on behalf of the NHS.
Please note: while the dispensing and delivery services are free, if you pay for your prescriptions this cost will still stand. If you don’t pay for them, you must include this information when you sign up for the online pharmacy service.
How to choose the right online pharmacy
As well as checking that the online pharmacy is a legitimate one, registered with the GPhC, as explained above, you may like to consider your unique needs when deciding which online pharmacy to go with. For example, some online pharmacies organise your repeat prescriptions into clearly labelled, easy to open, dose-specific recyclable pouches, as well as arranging dispensing and delivery – this can be particularly helpful if you manage multiple medications taken at various intervals throughout the day.
Researching online reviews on platforms like Trustpilot can also indicate how other people found using the online pharmacy’s service.
There are more FAQs for our online pharmacy partners, Phamarcy2U, PillTime and Chemist4U on our Help centre.
Depending on what medications you take, for what conditions, the free Evergreen Life app can offer evidence-backed healthy lifestyle advice at the end of the variety of in-app wellness checks and insights that may potentially alleviate your reliance on some medications.
Once you’re linked to your GP, you can also maximise the Evergreen Life app to seamlessly order repeat prescriptions.
Reviewed by:
Anna Keeble MA BA Head of Content and Wellbeing Expert
Dr Claire Marie Thomas MRCGP DFSRH DTMH DipNLP MBChB BMedSci Medical Expert
- General Pharmaceutical Council (2023) Internet Pharmacy. General Pharmaceutical Council.
- General Pharmaceutical Council (2023) Looking for a Pharmacy. General Pharmaceutical Council.
- NHS (2021) Dangers o buying medicines online. NHS.
- NHS (2023) Electronic prescriptions. NHS.
