Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to review the regulations surrounding the sale of potent medications such as (a) finasteride, (b) dutasteride, and (c) selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors via telehealth companies, in the context of the correlation between these medications and long-term health conditions.

There are no current plans to review the legal avenues of online prescribing and the dispensing of prescription-only medications.

Decisions about what medicines to prescribe are made by the doctor or healthcare professional responsible for that part of the patient’s care, and prescribers are accountable for their prescribing decisions, irrespective of the forum in which these decisions are made.

Clinicians are expected to work with patients to make decisions about their care and treatment as part of shared decision making, including discussing risks, benefits, and possible consequences of different options, in line with professional guidelines laid down by the General Medical Council, which are available at the following link:

https://www.gmc-uk.org/professional-standards/the-professional-standards/good-practice-in-prescribing-and-managing-medicines-and-devices