North Yorkshire campaigners welcome more checks on weight loss jabs
Patients to face more stringent checks before buying weight loss jabs online
Campaigners say they're pleased more checks are going to be done on people wanting to buy weight loss jabs online.
It's after reports of people exaggerating their weight to get hold of the injections.
Sarah Le Brocq from Harrogate has lost 6 stone using the jabs - she say anyone using them also needs psychological support and information about side effects.
"I've actually had to have my gallbladder removed and that is off the back of weight loss and the fact that rapid weight loss can cause gallstones and then have an aggravated gallbladder, which is what happened to me. I had no idea that was linked to weight loss or anything to do with what was going on."
She's also worried people are ordering them when they don't need them: "We know that lots of people are lying on forms and putting false information in to get the medications which hopefully some of these measures will start stopping because we need the right people to get hold of these medications. These are life changing drugs for people used in the right way, for the right people."
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has told online pharmacies they can no longer prescribe the drugs after reading a patient questionnaire, and must instead conduct a proper two-way consultation with the patient.
The move, which is intended to make sure jabs such as Wegovy or Mounjaro are prescribed safely, will include verifying the person's body mass index (BMI) via a video consultation, in person, or through accessing GP or medical records.
It will no longer be enough to prescribe the drugs following an email chat, from questionnaires or by people sending in photos of themselves.
The GPhC, which regulates pharmacies, said it was responding to concerns relating to the unsafe prescribing and supply of medicines online, including weight loss jabs.
It comes after reports that some people are getting hold of the drugs without thorough checks, and some online pharmacies have set targets for how prescriptions should be processed per hour.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is among those which called for tougher rules after becoming aware of people being wrongly prescribed the drugs who have previously had eating disorders, or whose body weight is already low.
The new rules say the prescriber must independently verify "weight, height and/or body mass index", adding: "By 'independently' we mean that the prescriber uses a different way to verify the information provided to them by the person.
"This could be through a video consultation, in person, from the person's clinical records or by contacting another healthcare provider such as the person's GP...
"Verifying information through a phone call would not be appropriate when supplying medication for weight loss."
The new rules also state that clinicians must ask for details of the patient's GP and get the patient's consent to contact them about the prescription.
The prescriber should "actively" share all relevant information about the prescription with other health professionals involved in the care of the person.
"If the person does not have a regular prescriber, such as a GP, or if there is no consent to share information, the prescriber should then decide whether it is safe to prescribe," the guidance said.
It also said all firms must demonstrate there are no conflicts of interest such as offering "incentives to prescribers to issue prescriptions".