Ever had an impacted wisdom tooth? They hurt! When I had one I collected some codeine-based painkillers from a pharmacy.
Before handing them over the pharmacist peered at me closely and asked me some questions.
It was the first time a pharmacist had ever asked me anything to determine whether I was ‘suitable’ for the prescription. Had I used them before? Was I planning to take them for more than a couple of days?
The process felt overly cautious at the time, although admittedly I was clucking for the codeine like a strung out junky. But through my agony I understood two things.
The first is that a community pharmacist must, and will, patiently ensure everything is in order before handing over a bag of drugs.
The second is that I could have been a strung out junky pulling a fast one. So I have zero sympathy for any pharmacist moaning about the advent of new regulations governing the online prescription of high risk drugs, which now include weight-loss jabs. What sort of game do they think they are in?
Panic
The new regs deliver a more robust verification process for patients, which in turn protects pharmacies. But given the wild consumer popularity of weight loss jabs, more regulation is on the way. The GPhC has promised further guidance on the issue is imminent.
Read more: BREAKING: Photo verification for weight loss drugs ‘not appropriate’
If you judge them by column inches, celebrity hype or novelty value, these cosmetic medicines are huge news. That’s part of the issue.
Some have warned over-regulation may lead to unnecessary bottlenecks and delays in patient access to treatment. They stress that creating barriers to access can drive patients to seek medications from illegitimate sources, which poses significant safety risks.
If a ‘barrier’ means a patient is required to comprehensively demonstrate a legitimate need for a prescription medicine, then I suppose it is a barrier, but these are not barriers to access. They are safety barriers. They are supposed to keep patients safe. Patients are hoodwinking existing online controls with ease. Yes, they shouldn’t be. But they are.
Read more: From a lawyer: Online regulations - exactly what has changed?
And yes, the ‘barriers’ may cause bottlenecks, but it’s not as if community pharmacy has a reputation for brisk retail. Neither should it want one. As a methodical precise professional you already know why.
The strangest thing about coy attitudes to tougher rules about online consultations is to imagine they aren’t required, as if presenting yourself physically hasn’t always been central to any diagnosis. And in plenty of situations it always will be.
To prescribe weight loss jabs online, it hasn’t been. Maybe, given the very physical nature of what it’s trying to achieve, it should be.
I know why some want to rattle along and get those orders filled, as if speed and safety are negotiable, but this is pharmacy. A pharmacist respects jumping through carefully arranged hoops. As many times as they need to, however long it takes. That’s the business.
