The programme also highlighted the need for increased measures to ensure best practice and patient safety.
Although expensive to obtain privately, weight loss medicines remain desirable and are increasingly being promoted on social media and as part of popular celebrity culture. However, these are powerful and effective medicines which are licensed only for patients with certain characteristics or health conditions, and for use in the treatment of obesity and for weight management.
These medicines are licensed to be used alongside dietary changes, physical activity and with ongoing monitoring and behavioural support. The risk of harm to people who obtain these medicines but fall outside of the clinical recommendations or the eligibility criteria, for example, not being over the age of 18 years or having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of under 30 (or 27 for those of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, or for those with certain weight-related health conditions) is significant.
The PDA has expressed long-standing concerns associated with online prescribing and the provision of services at a distance, most recently following the publication of revised guidance by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). As part of its response to the GPhC’s consultation on online prescribing, the PDA highlighted recommendations for strengthening guidance to ensure that prescribers can verify the patient’s details, confirming their suitability for treatment and that their GP is informed when medicines have been supplied.
Alima Batchelor, PDA Head of Policy said, “The findings of the Dispatches programme are concerning. Medicines are not usual items of commerce and although convenience is often seen as the driver for innovation and new models of care, the priority must always be patient safety. Taking a consumer approach to medicines is not in the public interest.
We need to ensure that pharmacists, with their knowledge of medicines, are at the heart of patient safety and are enabled to be part of the supply of such treatments underpinned by clear and robust guidance from the regulator and assured best practice from providers. We recognise that there is more than one regulator involved, and we call on them to come together to bring about a coordinated approach.”
The PDA will continue to work with its members, the GPhC and others to ensure that services can be provided safely and in the best interest of patients.
This programme can be streamed here.
Learn more
- GPhC’s latest guidance on online prescribing still does not go far enough to protect patients
- PDA discusses online supply of GLP-1 RA weight loss products on Woman’s Hour
- Watch Skinny Jab Scandal: Dispatches
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