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Online pharmacy platform Healthera has agreed to make changes to its web directory of all UK pharmacies after contractors raised concerns that the company’s website diverted business away from non-partner pharmacies. 

Yesterday (November 19), P3pharmacy reported that a number of pharmacy owners who are not paid subscribers to Healthera’s services have long been concerned by the fact that the ‘Order your prescription’ button on their listing page diverted patients to pharmacies that are partnered with Healthera. This button featured prominently next to the pharmacy name. 

One pharmacist characterised this practice as “unethical” and “misleading” to patients, and several said Healthera had refused to remove their listing from its site when they requested this. 

The company responded to these concerns yesterday with a statement in which it announced that its product team was “updating the design so that pharmacies not partnering with us will no longer display an ordering card at all”. 

The company said: “We value the pharmacy community and want to ensure our platform reflects that trust.

“We’re happy to speak directly and walk through any part of the flow with you or your team so we can make sure everything is completely clear and aligned.”

Chief executive Quintus Liu said that while there had been no intention to mislead patients, “I fully understand how the ‘Order your prescription’ card on your listing may have caused confusion”.

He said he had implemented the change “as soon as it was brought to our attention,” adding: “We've been serving the community pharmacy sector for 10 years, working on innovation every day that helps the sector generate more revenue, diversify their business, and better serve their patients.”

However, some pharmacists felt that removing the ‘Order your prescription’ call to action from non-partner listings did not go far enough, as at the bottom of their listing there are still links to Healthera-operated services such as weight loss, women’s health and men’s health. 

At the time of publication, there is also still a ‘Prescriptions’ hyperlink at the bottom of all pharmacy listings.

“Just remove all non-partners [from the directory]” one pharmacist urged Healthera.

Mr Liu told P3pharmacy yesterday that his company prefers not to comply with requests to remove individual pharmacies from its directory as maintaining a complete set of listings is in the public interest. 

However, he said he was prepared to speak to business owners who feel “any part of the listing could be improved or clarified”.

He added: “These pages are SEO-indexed and often help improve visibility and accessibility for local patients. 

“Many pharmacies benefit from increased digital presence even if they do not use any Healthera services.”

Mr Liu declined to speak on the record for this story.