Obtaining medicines online
In the UK, more than 2 million people buy medicines regularly over the internet from legitimate online pharmacies. If you are considering obtaining prescription medications online, it’s important that you familiarise yourself with the important information below.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of healthcare in England that registers, regulates, inspects and monitors providers of regulated healthcare activities. This includes the NHS as well as online primary care and other types of providers that need to be regulated. Find out more about the CQC and our rating here.
The Regulation & Quality Improvement Authority
The Regulation & Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) is the independent regulator and inspector of healthcare services delivered in Northern Ireland. Expert Health Limited trading as LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor is a registered Independent Medical Agency, under ID 11992, providing the regulated category of care ‘Private Doctor/Patient Group Directions’. We undergo annual inspections by RQIA to ensure we are meeting the Minimum Care Standards for Independent Healthcare Establishments set by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland. These Standards are underpinned by various legislation, as amended, including the Independent Health Care Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 and the The Regulation and Improvement Authority (Independent Health Care) (Fees and Frequency of Inspections) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011.
You can access our latest inspection reports on RQIA’s website here which demonstrate a good record of safe, compassionate and effective care and a well-led service.
RQIA can be contacted using the details on their Contact page.
General Medical Council
All our doctors are registered with the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) and comply with explicit GMC standards and guidelines including for remote prescribing.
You can check our doctors' GMC registrations online here.
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) monitors medicines and medical devices sold or distributed in the UK. They have the power to prosecute those who manufacture and distribute counterfeit products illegally in the UK.
For more information click here.
General Pharmaceutical Council
All LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor’s independent prescribing pharmacists are registered with Great Britain’s regulator of pharmacists, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
The internet pharmacy logo for LloydsPharmacy, who dispense the prescriptions on behalf of LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor, can be found on their homepage. Clicking LloydsPharmacy’s internet pharmacy logo, will take you to the LloydsPharmacy registration page on GPhC’s website.
All retail pharmacies in Great Britain, including those providing internet services, must be registered with GPhC. All registered online pharmacies must clearly display their unique internet pharmacy logo issued by GPhC on their website helping the public to identify legitimate websites. All GPhC logos display a green cross, with the words "Registered Pharmacy" and a 7-digit registration number. Clicking the logo takes you to the online pharmacy’s registration page on GPhC’s website allowing you to verify the registration details of the pharmacy behind the website. Further information on the logo and its use can be found on the GPhC website here.
While a number of legitimate registered pharmacies provide professional online pharmacy services, there are also a number of suppliers operating from websites offering to sell medicines who have no professional qualifications or healthcare expertise, and these sites cannot use the logo.
Unregulated pharmaceutical websites
By law, all online prescription services should be registered as this ensures that only genuine medicines are supplied, accurate information is given and careful checks are carried out.
Buying medicines from websites that are not connected to registered pharmacies can present a number of risks. There is no opportunity for an appropriately qualified health professional to assess whether the medicine is safe and appropriate for you to use, or to advise you on how the medication should be taken. This practice is dangerous, because only a doctor can reliably assess whether a prescription-only medicine is appropriate for a specific individual.
In addition, the safety and quality of medicines sold by unqualified internet suppliers cannot be guaranteed. Unregulated websites may supply fake medicines, which could contain inactive powder or might even be toxic.
A pharmacy offering to send out prescription-only medicine without requiring a doctor’s prescription may well be fraudulent.
Similarly, websites which are not regulated by the CQC may employ doctors who don’t make a proper assessment of each patient. Prescription-only medicines should only be prescribed to a patient after the doctor is confident that it’s in the patient’s best interest to receive it.
Our clinicians
The person with overall clinical responsibility for LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor is Dr Kieran Seyan. Dr Seyan is a UK registered General Practitioner. He oversees our team of clinicians (comprising doctors and independent prescribing pharmacists) who manage Online Doctor patients.
You can write to Dr Kieran Seyan at:
LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor
Mezzanine Floor
50-54 Wigmore Street
London
W1U 2AU
Learn more about our clinicians here.
Confidentiality and data protection
LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor has a legal obligation to comply with UK Data Protection legislation. We are not allowed to pass patient information to third parties that are not involved in the services provided through this website without the patient's explicit permission. See our Privacy Notice here.
