A loophole in the regulatory system in the UK allows patients to get prescription drugs with the help of “dangerous” online doctor sites, some of them using Romanian doctors, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed.

Thus, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), England’s healthcare regulator, is calling for a change in the law, as it can only inspect websites employing doctors contracted by companies in England.

The investigation describes two such cases in which firms contract general practitioners (GPs) abroad to prescribe drugs online.

One of them was set up by former doctor Julian Eden. It is called EuroRX and is based in Romania. The former doctor can’t prescribe drugs anymore but, through this Romanian company, other doctors can. And they can even prescribe drugs that the patients’ own GPs wouldn’t. For example, a woman who was treated for anorexia was able to order three months' worth of prescription slimming pills from an online doctor site. The drugs were prescribed by a Romanian doctor contracted through EuroRX.

The investigation also found another UK-based online doctor site that uses the same regulatory loophole. It is called UK Meds and can’t be regulated by the CQC either because it hires doctors to do consultations and prescriptions through its sister company EU General Practitioners in Romania.

Read more about the investigation here.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com