Behind Your Prescription: The Care Pharmacy’s Prescribing and Dispensing Standards

The people behind your care

You should be able to find out who is responsible for a pharmacy before you hand over your health information. Our team page introduces the pharmacists and healthcare professionals behind The Care Pharmacy, including our Superintendent Pharmacist, Mohammed Ismail Lakhi.

Our registration information links straight to the professional register entries, so you can check us independently rather than take our word for it. The General Pharmaceutical Council regulates pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacies in Great Britain. Its standards for registered pharmacies set out what you are entitled to expect: competent staff, proper advice, and a way to raise concerns.

Here is what actually happens to a request once you press submit:

Knowing who is behind the website is part of making a good decision. If you are not sure which service you need, contact our pharmacy team before you start.

Why our prescribing standards start with questions

An online consultation needs more than the name of the medicine you want. Your symptoms, your history and what you already take can all change what is safe. Honest, complete answers let the prescriber understand your situation and decide whether we can help.

Before you start, it helps to have these to hand:

• Every medicine you take, including pharmacy products and supplements.
• Any allergies or bad reactions to treatment in the past.
• Relevant diagnoses, recent changes in your health, and what you have already tried.
• The questions or worries you want the prescriber to think about.

Answer for yourself, not for someone else. Include things even if they seem irrelevant. If you cannot remember a medicine name or do not understand a question, ask us rather than guessing. Small details change decisions.

A clinical decision comes before a prescription

Every online request we receive is reviewed by a qualified prescriber. Our sleep service, for example, sets out the consultation, assessment and prescription as separate stages. A prescription is issued only if it is appropriate.

Sometimes we need more from you. Our team may email or phone with a question, so keep your contact details current and check your messages after submitting. Being asked for clarification is not a delay for its own sake. It is us making sure the decision is right.

Our prescribing standards also mean the treatment you asked for may not be the one we recommend. Some problems need an examination, a test, or a different service altogether. The right outcome is a decision that fits your circumstances, even when that means no prescription today.

The GPhC’s guidance for pharmacy services provided online describes the safeguards expected of remote care. Doing this over the internet does not lower the bar for the clinical decision. If anything it raises it.

What the pharmacist adds

Prescribing decides whether you should have a medicine and how to use it. Dispensing is the pharmacy’s job of checking that prescription and preparing the medicine correctly. They are two different responsibilities, carried out by different people, even though you experience them as one online journey.

A registered pharmacist checks every prescription before it is dispensed. That is a second set of qualified eyes on the medicine, the dose and the directions. Occasionally a question surfaces at this stage too. An order you have submitted is not the same as a parcel ready to go.

When your medicine arrives, read the label and the leaflet. Check the name and directions match what you expected. If anything looks different or unclear, contact us before taking it, and keep the packaging so we can identify the product quickly.

We are still here after the order

Questions often come once you have read the leaflet or started fitting the medicine into your routine. How exactly do I take it? What if I miss a dose? Does it matter that I also take something else? Tell us the medicine name and ask. That is what we are for.

Our online clinic lists every condition we assess. Each one has its own clinical rules, so advice for one treatment does not transfer to another. If your health or your other medicines change, tell us. It may change the advice.

If you have a concern about the service itself, our complaints procedure explains how to reach the Superintendent Pharmacist. Clear prescribing standards mean nothing without clear accountability. You should always know how to ask a question and how to raise a concern.

Before you start your consultation

Pick the condition you need help with, read the service page, and take your time over the questions. Be open about what you hope treatment will do and about anything that worries you. Our job is to weigh that information and work out the right next step with you.

Our delivery policy explains what happens once an approved order is ready to leave the pharmacy. Assessment, dispensing and delivery are three separate stages. Each has its own job, and none of them is skipped.

Common questions