Following a lengthy consultation last year, the UK Government has passed legislation to re-classify Tramadol.

From June 10th, 2014 it will be a Schedule 3 drug with certain controlled drug requirements.

One of these requirements is that it can only be prescribed with a proper CD prescription (form FP10PCD) with a ‘wet signature.’ This means that electronic prescriptions are not valid from this date.

We plan to continue to provide doctor-approved Tramadol treatments to our patients. But we can only do so in full compliance with the new legislation, so this will entail number of changes. These changes will affect Tramadol 50mg, Tramadol Drops, Zydol, Zamadol, Tramacet, and Mabron.

Delivery

From June 10th, we can no longer provide 24hr or next-day delivery on Tramadol medications. We anticipate that the new ordering process will add several days to delivery. So from this date you should anticipate a 5-day delivery window for Tramadol to allow for doctor approval.

Online Consultations

We are changing our online consultations to meet the new requirements and we have added 3 additional questions. These concern ID checks. You MUST agree to these. If you click NO to any one of these 3 questions regarding the ID checks, your order will not be processed. These ID checks will now apply to ALL ORDERS FOR PAINKILLERS. Also, repeat prescriptions are no longer allowed for Tramadol. So even if you are already doctor-approved for this medication you will need to go through the new consultation each time you order.

ID Checks

IDs will be checked using Equifax. If an ID check fails, we will send an email and give you an opportunity to log into your account and change the details such as the DOB in case you made a typo. If, after 3 days, you do not respond to this email, we will cancel the order and prohibit you from making another purchase on our systems unless we have a explanation as to why the ID was entered incorrectly.

Prices

Meeting these new exacting requirements entails an increased burden on our administration and medical staff. Inevitably, the additional costs of this burden must be passed on to our patients. Accordingly, we are reviewing all prices on Tramadol treatments.

Pill Count

Tramadol can now only be provided with a maximum of 28 days supply. This means we are having to modify the pill count of some orders. For example, Mabron 200mg maximum dosage is 2 tablets per day so the 60 tablet count would exceed the limit. Accordingly, we have adjusted the pill count on certain products to accommodate this requirement.

In the case of this Mabron 200mg example, the maximum 28 day supply is 56 tablets so we have adjusted quantity supplied to this amount. Since manufacturers have not caught up with these recent legislative changes, they still supply on a 60 count box so the pharmacy will manually adjust the packet contents to meet the legal requirements.

Our Service

We understand that these changes make life more difficult for our patients just as much as they are an added workload for our doctors and pharmacists. So we would like to thank you for your forbearance as we make these changes so we can continue to support your health needs.

For those of you interested in the fine print, we can offer further information on this topic via these links:

Royal Pharmaceutical Society – Support Document Summary of Changes

UK Governments Original Consultation Paper

Author : Mike