A great deal has changed in the way people seek treatment for all sorts of conditions and the last ten years has seen one of the biggest revolutions in healthcare since the arrival of the NHS in the late forties. Online prescribing has gone from being a small niche market dominated by online clinics based offshore at the turn of the century to a multibillion pound industry run by major international pharmaceutical groups. In this article, we look at how this market developed and the legality of buying treatments online.

Really the birth of the online prescribing market sometimes known as remote prescribing can be traced back to the arrival of Viagra. As most people know, this magic blue pill was an extraordinary stroke of commercial luck for its manufacturer, the drugs giant Pfizer. The story goes that Viagra, which was being trialled as a heart pill suddenly started producing surprising side effects in the form of erections for the lucky men undergoing treatment trials. Pfizer knew immediately that they had hit gold and the only question once the treatment had been licensed was whether the treatment would be made available on the NHS. Is it legal to buy Viagra tablets online in the UK with a doctor

Given that as many as 10% of the adult male population is said to be suffering from impotence known medically as erectile dysfunction, it was obvious to the drug regulators that it would cost the NHS drugs budget a small fortune if the treatment was to be made available vis an NHS prescription. So it was decided that to ration it with the result that only about 10% of sufferers were eligible to receive the treatment on the NHS and only then, treatment was limited to 4 x 100mg Viagra tablets per month, enough for most people for nearly enough for the more sexually active sufferer.

people started to look online for treatment and a few entrepreneurial doctors were prepared to risk the wrath of the GMC General medical Council whose rules basically allowed remote consultations and prescribing but these rules were written long before the advent of the internet. The rules essentially allowed doctors to write a prescription for one of their patients without a face to face consultation but it was assumed that the patients were well known to the doctor and that the doctor was clearly responsible for follow-up aftercare.

The legal position about online prescribing has since been clarified and as from 2009 the GMC introduced new guidelines. Provided the patient undertakes a thorough online written consultation and that the patient expressly agrees for the remote doctor to undertake the aftercare, then the GMC is happy for a prescription to be issued without a face to face consulation. If a patient has a pre-existing prescription from their own doctor, then it is perfectly legal to buy treatments online simply by posting the prescription to the pharmacy.