Care Quality Commission targets website which gave prescriptions in 17 seconds
pharmafile | April 6, 2017 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Care Quality Commission, prescription
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), England’s health and social care service regulator, has identified four online prescription medicine vendors engaging in highly suspect practices that it claims endanger patient safety.
Issues highlighted ranged from inadequate recording of medical histories, lack of communication with relevant GPs, failure to validate patient identity, and even the prescription of unsuitable treatments.
Doctor Matt Ltd was found to have issued prescriptions following assessment by a GP within dangerously short timeframes, the quickest of which was just 17 seconds. The CQC responded by suspending its operation for six months.
White Pharmacy Ltd was reprimanded for prescribing a “high volume” of opioid-based painkillers to patients without checking medical or prescribing histories, with no system in place by which to do this.
Frosts Pharmacy had prescribed a large amount of inhalers without verifying the severity of patient’s asthma, or even if they had been diagnosed at all.
Finally, i-GP Ltd displayed issues across the board, particularly its inability to adequately validate the identities of its patients.
Angus Wrixon, a spokesman for Doctor Matt, defended the service, explaining that patient safety had “always been our priority,” adding “interactions may last only a few seconds, for example, when a known customer is requesting a repeat prescription – as is the case in many normal GP consultations.”
Frosts Pharmacy also claimed that it had taken immediate steps to suspend and re-evaluate its systems: “We have responded immediately, even suspending our asthma inhaler service for the time being so that we can ensure we are operating to the highest standards.”
The CQC identified two similar services last month and has issued warnings to the public regarding online prescription services.
Matt Fellows
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