 | |
| Company type | Online pharmacy |
|---|---|
| Industry | Pharmaceutical |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Daniel Lee |
| Headquarters | Thorpe Park, Leeds, England [1] |
Area served | United Kingdom (prescriptions) Global (retail products) |
Key people |
|
| Products | NHS repeat prescriptions service |
| Website | www |
Pharmacy2U is a British online pharmacy company, which manages NHS repeat prescriptions on behalf of patients.
Pharmacy2U was founded by pharmacist Daniel Lee in November 1999, and launched to the public in June 2000.[ citation needed ]
The British Medical Association initially had concerns about the use of internet prescribing and wanted to know more about Pharmacy2U's service. The chairman of the BMA's prescribing committee, George Rae, said "I would advise against getting private prescriptions over the internet because the patient's GP is not involved". [2] By July 2000, the council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society had established the standards of professional practice for those who wished to provide pharmaceutical services via the internet. [3] By August 2000, Pharmacy2U was one of the founding members of the European Association of Mail Service Pharmacies. [4]
Pharmacy2U was involved in the first pilots to trial the electronic transfer of prescriptions (EPS) which went live in June 2002. [5] [6] With EPS, patients could request prescriptions electronically, and receive their medication by a postal delivery rather than picking it up in person. [7]
By 2003, Pharmacy2U had incorporated 142 surgeries into its program. [8]
In October 2015, Pharmacy2U were fined £130,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office for selling the names and addresses of patients without their permission. A spokesman apologised and said that Pharmacy2U would no longer sell patient data. [9]
During the opening of their £3.5 million Leeds-based dispensary in 2015, Pharmacy2U stopped providing medication for several weeks due to a failure in their automated dispensing system. A Pharmacy2U spokesman apologised, saying that "unforeseen difficulties" had led to "unexpected delays for some orders". [10] [11]
In January 2016, Pharmacy2U merged with ChemistDirect.co.uk who specialise in over-the-counter remedies. ChemistDirect.co.uk's Mark Livingstone took on the role of CEO for the newly formed group with Daniel Lee moving to chief pharmacy officer. [12]
In July 2017, Pharmacy2U's direct mail was criticised for leaving patients confused about their repeat prescriptions. [13]
The company was in a legal dispute in late 2018 over the rights of the contact details of members of the National Pharmacy Association. The presiding judge expressed concerns over the company's ability to "pick off" individual members. [14]
As of May 2019, Pharmacy2U has over 350,000 nominated EPS patients.[ clarification needed ] [15] In November 2019, Pharmacy2U dispensed over 621,128 prescription items. [16] Pharmacy2U was named no.91 in 2019's Sunday Times Tech Track 100. [17]
The company made a loss of £16 million in 2018/19, although it added 330,000 new NHS patients and dispensed more than 5.3 million NHS prescriptions. [18]
In 2020, Pharmacy2U opened a dispensary in Leicester, almost completely automated and capable of dispensing up to 6.5 million prescription items a month. [19]
In March 2021, it was reported that Pharmacy2U was exploring a potential sale to a new private equity backer. [20]
Pharmacy2U acquired the LloydsDirect business from LloydsPharmacy in October 2023 for an undisclosed sum. [21]
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who specializes in the preparation, dispensing, and management of medications. A pharmacist provides pharmaceutical advice and guidance, often serving as a primary care provider in the community, and offering other services, such as health screenings and immunizations.
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links health sciences with pharmaceutical sciences and natural sciences. The professional practice is becoming more clinically oriented as most of the drugs are now manufactured by pharmaceutical industries. Based on the setting, pharmacy practice is either classified as community or institutional pharmacy. Providing direct patient care in the community of institutional pharmacies is considered clinical pharmacy.
A prescription, often abbreviated ℞ or Rx, is a formal communication from a physician or other registered healthcare professional to a pharmacist, authorizing them to dispense a specific prescription drug for a specific patient. Historically, it was a physician's instruction to an apothecary listing the materials to be compounded into a treatment—the symbol ℞ comes from the first word of a medieval prescription, Latin recipere, that gave the list of the materials to be compounded.
A prescription drug is a pharmaceutical drug that is permitted to be dispensed only to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.
A pharmacy technician performs pharmacy-related functions. Training, certification, licensing, and actual practice of pharmacy technicians varies not only worldwide but in some countries regionally as well as by employer.
The NHS Electronic Prescription Service is part of the NHS National Programme for IT of the National Health Service in England. It enables the electronic transfer of medical prescriptions from doctors to pharmacies and other dispensers and electronic notification to the reimbursement agency, NHS Prescription Services.
LloydsPharmacy was the trading name of Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd, a British pharmacy company, which was formed by a merger in 1998 and by 2021 was the second-largest community pharmacy company in the UK. The company, which was owned by McKesson Corporation from 2014 and Aurelius Group from 2022, ceased trading in November 2023 and later entered voluntary liquidation. Some stores were closed and the remaining 1,054 were sold to new owners.
An online pharmacy, internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the Internet and sends orders to customers through mail, shipping companies, or online pharmacy web portal.
The NHS treatments blacklist is an informal name for a list of medicines and procedures which will not be funded by public money except in exceptional cases. These include but are not limited to procedures which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has ruled of limited effectiveness and particular brand name medicines. In 2017 there was a proposal for 3,200 over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to be restricted and 18 procedures to be added to the list. This generated some controversy amongst doctors with some arguing that OTC should be blacklisted instead, and others believing the move did not take into account individual patient needs.
Charges for prescriptions for medicines and some medical appliances are payable by adults in England under the age of 60. However, people may be exempt from charges in various exemption categories. Charges were abolished by NHS Wales in 2007, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland in 2010 and by NHS Scotland in 2011. In 2010/11, in England, £450 million was raised through these charges, some 0.5% of the total NHS budget. In April 2021 the charge was raised to £9.35 for up to a three-month supply of each item. In 2022, for the first time since 2010, the charge was not increased.
A pharmacy is a premises which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of medical prescriptions and is available to counsel patients about prescription and over-the-counter drugs or about health problems and wellness issues. A typical pharmacy would be in the commercial area of a community.
Electronic prescription is the computer-based electronic generation, transmission, and filling of a medical prescription, taking the place of paper and faxed prescriptions. E-prescribing allows a physician, physician assistant, pharmacist, or nurse practitioner to use digital prescription software to electronically transmit a new prescription or renewal authorization to a community or mail-order pharmacy. It outlines the ability to send error-free, accurate, and understandable prescriptions electronically from the healthcare provider to the pharmacy. E-prescribing is meant to reduce the risks associated with traditional prescription script writing. It is also one of the major reasons for the push for electronic medical records. By sharing medical prescription information, e-prescribing seeks to connect the patient's team of healthcare providers to facilitate knowledgeable decision making.
Well, formerly known as The Co-operative Pharmacy, is the second largest overall pharmacy chain after the company Boots in the United Kingdom. It is the largest pharmacy chain in Wales.
Automatic Generic Substitution is a proposal by the Department of Health (DH) whereby in January 2010 pharmacists could be obliged to substitute a generic version of a medication even if the prescriber had written the prescription for a specific brand, as part of a new deal on drug pricing.
Drug packaging is process of packing pharmaceutical preparations for distribution, and the physical packaging in which they are stored. It involves all of the operations from production through drug distribution channels to the end consumer.
Online doctor is a term that emerged during the 2000s, used by both the media and academics, to describe a generation of physicians and health practitioners who deliver healthcare, including drug prescription, over the internet.
Pharmacy in the United Kingdom has been an integral part of the National Health Service since it was established in 1948. Unlike the rest of the NHS, pharmacies are largely privately provided apart from those in hospitals, and even these are now often privately run.
R v Lee is the leading case in England and Wales concerning erroneous professional dispensing of a controlled medicine. The case was considered by foremost judges with a conviction in the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in front of its President, the Recorder of London, and its partly successful appeal in the binding precedent-level Court of Appeal. The case confirmed that a serious error in giving a vulnerable customer a potent drug that does not match in any way the prescription, where such action is not the primary causation of any death or suffering, can result in a prosecution of the responsible pharmacist, with up to 2 years imprisonment, depending on the circumstances.
The Dispensing Doctors' Association is an organisation for rural general practitioners in the United Kingdom, based in Kirkbymoorside.
A Minor Ailment Scheme is a service provided by pharmacies for the National Health Service, first established in England in 2008.
