So easy for us to get slim pill after 4-minute check

WHILE Dr Hilary appeared on Good Morning Britain last week, our investigator was able to get a month’s worth of prescription- only slimming pills from Health Express after a consultation lasting just four minutes.

We paid £59.99 after filling in a questionnaire, posing as an obese patient with a BMI of 36.3 but claiming to have no medical problems at all despite being 51.

The prescription was approved by the Health Express doctor who accepted our claim to be in good health without any heart, circulatory, liver or health problems in the family.

GMC guidelines say: “Remote consultations and prescribing by telephone, video link and online can present a number of risks to patient safety. You must provide a good standard of practice and care. If you assess, diagnose or treat patients, you must adequately assess the patient’s conditions... Before you prescribe via telephone, video-link or online, you must satisfy yourself that you can make an adequate assessment, establish a dialogue and obtain the patient’s consent.

“You may prescribe only when you have adequate knowledge of the patient’s health, and are satisfied that the medicines serve the patient’s needs.

Yet with very little consultation and no medical records, our investigator was handed the Xenical pills, which warn on their packaging that they should only be used under the supervision of a doctor.

The CQC report revealed e-Med doctors had prescribed acne and eczema treatments harmful to unborn children – without checking whether female patients were pregnant.

Director of Health Express Vijay Patel said: “The terms of use of our website specifically require patients to act in good faith when completing the medical questionnaire.

“Further to the publication of the report by the CQC, we have investigated the matter and obtained confirmation from e-Med Private Medical Services Ltd that they have taken action to address the criticism levelled at them by the CQC.

“The same report states that e-Med Private Medical Services Ltd is providing a caring and responsive service in accordance with the relevant regulations.”