A new British internet pharmacy is offering to dispense National Health Service prescriptions. Britain's first online pharmacy - pharmacy2u.co.uk - only offers a dispensing service for private prescriptions (PJ, November 27, 1999, p849).
The new service, at www.allcures.com, has been created by Mr Jaipal Cheema, who is superintendent pharmacist of Wekare Plc, a company which operates a number of pharmacies trading as Unicare pharmacies in south-east England.
In a statement on January 28, allcures.com said that the new service complied with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's interim guidelines on internet pharmacy. A pharmacist would always be present when medicines were dispensed and people seeking pharmacy medicines would be offered consultation with a pharmacist. Customers would be allowed to buy a maximum of two packs of any medicine at a time.
Mr Cheema said: "We have put two years' research and over £2m behind allcures.com. We are confident that we will set the standard in internet pharmacies in terms of patient confidentiality and efficiency and that neither the profession nor our customers will find the allcures.com service to be lacking.
Initially, the site will offer a product range similar to any high street pharmacy. The company has plans to extend its service into Europe by the end of the year.