 |
| The Care Quality Commission has warned that an urgent change in the law is needed to clamp down on foreign-based online doctor sites |
●England's health care
regulator wants action over powerful and addictive drugs ●Loophole means sites avoid regulation by contracting
Romanians and Bulgarians ●One, UK Meds, is promoted
by celebrity doctor Christian Jessen, who has presented Channel 4 programmes
An urgent change in the
law is needed to clamp down on foreign-based online doctor sites that sell
prescription-only drugs, the Care Quality Commission is warning.
Daily
Mail UK report continues:
England's
health care regulator wants action over powerful and often addictive drugs that
are being sent to people without proper consultations.
In
many cases they are ordered by addicts to circumvent their own GPs. A loophole
in legislation means websites are avoiding regulation by contracting their
doctors to work from EU countries including Romania and Bulgaria.
The
commission spoke out before a BBC Panorama investigation that found two companies providing potentially dangerous drugs without carrying
out stringent checks.
One,
UK Meds, is promoted by celebrity doctor Christian Jessen, who has presented
Channel 4 programmes.
Panorama
found the company was avoiding regulation as it hires doctors through a sister
company EU General Practitioners in Romania.
Two
former opiate addicts were asked to order prescription-only medication. One
received the opiate-based painkiller dihydrocodeine, the other another powerful
painkiller, pregabalin.
A
spokesman for Dr Jessen said he was used by the company to present short
information videos and didn't endorse specific products.
Professor
Steve Field at the CQC warned the law 'does not allow us to have any oversight
over companies outside England and that is a real problem'.
He added: 'We need to try and get the legislation changed so that people can't just bypass our regulatory activities.'
No comments:
Post a Comment