Boots launches private PGD service to supply Viagra
Boots pharmacies will offer sildenafil to men through a private
PGD |
Four pharmacists in the north west of England this week became the first in the UK to offer the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (Viagra) to patients through a private patient group direction (PGD). The pharmacists,
who are employed by Boots at three of its stores in Manchester and Salford,
have signed up to the pilot, which is being run as a private health care
service.
If the pilot is successful Boots plans to roll it out to other branches,
although this decision is unlikely to be made before the end of the year.
The local pharmaceutical committee is disappointed that it knew nothing
about the scheme until it appeared in the media last weekend. Manchester
LPC secretary Pauline Thickett said: “It just seems that Boots
is going off on its own way and not involving other pharmacists locally.
It would have been nice as LPC secretary to have known about this beforehand,
rather than having to find out about it on the news.”
Under the erectile dysfunction programme the Boots pharmacists will only
be able to offer patients Viagra. If they decide a patient would benefit
from an alternative erectile dysfunction drug they have to refer the
patient to their GP. Pharmacists have been trained over the past nine
months to work to a protocol developed by an advisory expert panel.
The programme, which is only available to men aged between 30 and 65
years who are registered with a GP in the UK, has taken two years to
develop. Manchester was chosen as the pilot area because the company
can trial the initiative in three distinctly different Boots stores.
Boots is confident that the rigour of the pharmacist consultation and
the protocol will prevent the service being abused by men who want sildenafil
for lifestyle, rather than clinical, reasons.
Kevin Reilly, Boots’s health care development manager, said: “The
bottom line here is that PGDs are very strict and patients will be screened
for the service. If you were a fraud and wanted four tablets of Viagra
(for lifestyle reasons) there are much easier ways of doing that than
going through this programme.”
Boots is hoping that its initiative, being marketed under the banner “Boots
Pharmacy+ ED Programme”, will help reach the 90 per cent of men
whom it estimates have erectile dysfunction but go untreated.
How the programme will work
Men interested in obtaining sildenafil will
be able to telephone to book an appointment for a consultation
with the pharmacist.
Consultations, which will take place in the pharmacy, are expected
to take between 45 minutes to an hour. The pharmacist will take
the patient’s medical history, assess his symptoms of erectile
dysfunction as well as check his cholesterol, blood pressure and
glucose levels before deciding whether to issue a packet of four
tablets. The pharmacy consultation and medicine will cost £50.
The pharmacist will also inform the patient’s GP about the
consultation and its outcome. If a patient wants further packets
of sildenafil he will have to agree to a consultation with a Boots-nominated
private GP. The consultation will cost £37.50 and the Viagra £21.25. |
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader