Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock

Worry online Pill prescription takes away 'face-to-face' doctor contact

Lloyds Online Pharmacy has just launched a new service where women can order their contraceptive pill prescription online, instead of going to a doctor.

A NEW SERVICE offers online prescriptions to women for the contraceptive pill – meaning they won’t have to go to their doctor to renew the script.

It was launched by Lloyds Online Doctor, which said that Irish women “are frustrated with the cost and inconvenience of visiting a doctor’s surgery to renew their prescription for the oral contraceptive pill”, according to its research.

Lloyds Online Doctor’s online prescription renewal for the oral contraceptive pill allows women to order a prescription for a six month course of their current pill by completing a confidential online assessment.

Within one working day an Irish registered doctor will assess the request and, assuming the necessary criteria are met, will post a prescription directly to the person’s door, which they can fulfil at a pharmacy of their choice.

Concerns

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson from the Irish Pharmacy Union said that the supply of prescription-only medicine online or by mail order is illegal in Ireland – but supplying a prescription is not.

He said there could be a worry about a situation where “face-to-face contact with a health care professional is taken away”. “We believe there is benefit to having a full face-to-face holistic consultation with a healthcare professional,” he said.

But he added that “from a pharmacy law perspective, a legally written properly completed prescription is a legally written prescription”.

The Irish Medical Organisation’s GP Committee chair, Dr Ray Walley, told the Daily Mail today that in his opinion the service was á la carte and was ‘neither safe practice or personalised care’.

There were also concerns expressed to the paper by the Irish Parents’ Association about the fact there isn’t a physical consultation involved.

Dr Christina Hennessey, doctor and Service Development Clinician with Lloyds Online Doctor, said that women in Ireland spend up to €250 a year on oral contraception, almost half of which is spent on doctors’ fees to renew their prescription.

The Behaviour and Attitudes study found that many women viewed a charge of €40 to €70 for a repeat prescription as excessive, given the reccurring need for contraceptive.

Read: Six deaths linked to oral contraceptive pill in Ireland>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
36 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Doyle
    Favourite Dave Doyle
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 7:20 AM

    40% of people who live in the USA are suffering from a chronic illness of one sort or another. Think on that. That’s nearly half of the population of the USA. Pesticides, unlabled GMO foods, food riven with additives, growth hormones, ammonia, have a huge bearing on that figure of 40%. When Monsanto can place its people in the Supreme Court, and on the board of the FDA there will never be any chance of that number of 40% decreasing. The number will only rise.

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Denonu
    Favourite Denonu
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 9:54 AM

    @Dave Doyle: Sedentary lifestyles and too much calorie-laden, salty processed food is the cause of those problems.

    Glyphosate is used just as widely in Europe as it is in the US, so there’s very little basis for your above post wrt. pesticides.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chemical Brothers
    Favourite Chemical Brothers
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 11:32 AM

    @Dave Doyle: Likely nothing to do with Monsanto or Glyphosate but to do with the adulteration of the food chain with sulphite preservatives & sulphite colorants.

    Sulphur dioxide & sulphites are the only one of 14 allergens that can be legally HIDDEN in food if the levels are below 10mg/kg or 10ml/l. Imagine if same rules applied to peanuts.

    The sulphites are driving chronic inflammation which we suspect is exacerbating a newly defined disease called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome that may already be an epidemic in developed nations even Ireland. The disease is an immune disease likely triggered by environmental factors such as smog, diesel exhaust, of gassing polyurethane plastics and other household chemicals we assume are safe WD40, 3 in 1 oil, deodorant propellants….very long list.

    Once the genie is out of the bottle, Mast Cells within the immune system start to misidentify threats and one threat it mis-identifies are sulphites in food which are now ubiquitous. Sulphites are used to cheat on shelf life and cheat on colour.

    Acute exposure by thousands of personnel to vast amounts of known sensitizer chemicals at the Air Corps at Baldonnel has left a medical trail that will be very valuable to any scientist looking to get to the bottom of this problem. Young men suffered MCAS symptoms in late teens/early 20s when the measured profile of the illness in the USA is confined 80% to middle aged women.

    Monsanto is a convenient bogie man but the answer is likely simpler and happening every time we eat breakfast, dinner and tea as well as nibbles and a glass of wine.

    6
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Mc Donagh
    Favourite John Mc Donagh
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 1:41 PM

    @Chemical Brothers: A well researched, reasonable and balanced response but you’re dealing with Journal prejudice where everybody goes off pushing their own little barrow.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Brady
    Favourite James Brady
    Report
    Apr 11th 2019, 11:25 PM

    The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the primary agency of the European Union for risk assessments regarding food safety.
    In October 2015, EFSA concluded that ‘glyphosate is unlikely to pose a hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential’.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute GO GREEN
    Favourite GO GREEN
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 12:01 AM

    @James Brady: Study after study has shown that is does cancer -Common weed killer glyphosate increases cancer risk by 41%, study says https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/14/health/us-glyphosate-cancer-study-scli-intl/index.html
    Weedkiller glyphosate a ‘substantial’ cancer factor
    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47633086

    2 recent cases in US have been win by people who sued and win.

    Have you ever wondered why cancer is skyrocketing why bees are dying etc

    80
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute GO GREEN
    Favourite GO GREEN
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 12:03 AM

    @GO GREEN: Jury Rules Against Bayer in California Glyphosate and Cancer Trial https://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/jury-rules-against-bayer-in-california-glyphosate-and-cancer-trial

    32
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Favourite Cormac Ó Braonáin
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 12:17 AM

    @James Brady: that conlusion only came after the heavyweight German corporations got involved. The WHO has been compromised for a good few years now.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
    Favourite Brian Ó Dálaigh
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 1:24 AM

    @Cormac Ó Braonáin: actually, the WHO considers that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic”, inline with findings from the IARC. It’s the EFSA, completely unrelated to the WHO, that is compromised.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Vos
    Favourite Hans Vos
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 9:25 AM

    @GO GREEN: But the resurges agreed that the findings are limited. Also it is unlikely to cause cancer when handling in a proper way. Everything can be harmful if not proper used.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chemical Brothers
    Favourite Chemical Brothers
    Report
    Apr 12th 2019, 10:55 AM

    “The plaintiff’s assumed technical knowledge does not excuse the lack of information on the product and its harmful effects – a farmer is not a chemist.”

    French judges appear to show sense. The State Claims Agency has managed to successfully argue in an Irish Court that military aircraft mechanics in the Irish Air Corps with ZERO medical training were able to diagnose themselves with chemical injure thus starting the statute clock.

    SCA have argued that an Air Corps technician going to an doctor asking did chemicals harm me and doctor saying maybe or maybe not means the technician had “knowledge” that the chemicals had harmed him.

    Like I said the French judge appears to have displayed common sense against a formidable corporate foe.

    12
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds