Find out who does what

The website brand, the prescribing service and the dispensing pharmacy are often three separate organisations. Look for the pharmacy's name, premises address and registration details, and for information about the prescriber. A well-run service spells out each role. You should not have to guess from a logo in the footer.

The GPhC regulates pharmacies and pharmacy professionals in Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own pharmacy regulator. Search the official register yourself and compare the details with the service you use. A registration number copied from a genuine business may have no link at all to the website showing the number.

Check the consultation process

GPhC guidance sets safeguards for online weight-management prescribing. These include independent checks of details such as your weight, height or BMI. An online questionnaire on its own does not meet those checks. The service must also let you and the prescriber talk to each other in good time.

Fast approval is no sign of good care. Ask how the service gets the medical information it needs, checks your other medicines and handles doubts about whether treatment suits you. Never give false measurements or leave out important history to get through the form. The assessment exists to protect you.

Check the support after you pay

Before you order, find out how to reach a clinician about side effects, who deals with urgent questions and what happens out of hours. Check how reviews, dose changes, maintenance and supply interruptions work. A chatbot or a tracking page is no clinical support plan.

Read the delivery and damaged-product procedures too. Temperature-sensitive medicines need proper handling, and a delayed parcel may need assessing. Keep your prescription, dispensing details and order records so you have a clear trail if you need help.

Read reviews with care

Patient reviews tell you about communication and delivery. They cannot check each clinical decision or what is inside a medicine. Thousands of reviews do not make up for a missing operator name or details that differ from the official register.

Take extra care with sellers who offer prescription-only medicines without an assessment, who only talk through social media or who ask you to pay a personal account with no link to the business. If anything fails to match, contact the registered pharmacy using details you have checked yourself before you buy. If you already have a suspicious product, its appearance proves nothing. Ask a pharmacist, and consider reporting the product to the relevant regulator and through Yellow Card.

Check the web address as well as the name

Lookalike web addresses pose as legitimate services. Open the register yourself and use contact details from a trusted official source to sort out any mismatch. Be wary if a payment link leads to a different name, or a message pushes you to send money straight away.

Keep your login details private. Send only the identity documents the legitimate service needs. Proper identity checks are part of safe care, but they should happen through a clearly named, secure service that explains how your information is used.

Sources

Your own medicine leaflet and prescriber come first. A source from another country does not mean the same rule applies in the UK.

  1. GPhC: Online pharmacy safeguards for medicine supply pharmacyregulation.org
  2. GPhC: Distance pharmacy services guidance, February 2025 assets.pharmacyregulation.org
  3. MHRA: GLP-1 medicines for weight loss and diabetes gov.uk

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