By Good and Bad in Buying Online Medicine in Sri Lanka
E-commerce has developed nowadays you can buy anything online. Starting from groceries, clothes, electronic equipment, phones, household appliances to medicines. there are many renowned online pharmacies now that accept online prescriptions and issue and deliver the drugs to your doorstep. This has made anyone’s life easy as you don’t have to walk to a drug store and buy drugs. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic situation most of the hospitals have started using an online system to order and deliver drugs to patients to their homes. Patients also do not have to wait in a huge queue to get their drugs as well.
List of online pharmacies in Sri Lanka
However, is the online purchasing of drugs safe? There are few online pharmacies registered for online medication and these pharmacies are being monitored regularly to see if any illegal things are happening in Sri Lanka. But are all pharmacies present on the internet are legal and allowed to issue drugs online? Are the drugs ordered online safe to consume? Well, this article will be talking about the good and bad or the advantages and the disadvantages of purchasing drugs online.
Good
Convenience
Ordering medicine from an online store is very easy. You just have to upload the prescription to the site and they will deliver the drugs to your doorstep within few days. You can also compare the prices in different pharmacies and see if there are any discounts and select the best pharmacy that suits your requirement. This is especially easy for patients who are on long-term drugs they can easily order their drugs and get them delivered. Ordering your drugs is just a few fingertips away and you can order it staying at your home. No need to wait in a long queue anymore.
Hassel-free
Are you a customer who has waited for hours in queues to buy prescribed medicine? It might have taken several hours of your valuable time to buy the medicine. Have you gone to a pharmacy and been told the prescribed medicine is not available at the moment? What a waste of your time and travel expenses. Why waste money and time when you can order all your drugs at your home through an online pharmacy. It’s quite easy and simple and hassle-free.
Expertise
Your online pharmacist will also be a qualified one and will be able to advise drugs. As long as you buy medicines online from registered legal online stores there won’t be any problem. The pharmacist will provide medical advice and details regarding drugs and you can even ask questions and get answers online. There won’t be any difference in the level of expertise in the online platform.
Discretion
If you don’t want anyone else to know that your buying prescription medicine for certain drugs, the online pharmacy will always protect your confidentiality and deliver the package very securely.
Cheaper in price
All of you know how expensive certain drugs are, but usually, when you purchase them online it’s much cheaper than buying them from a physical pharmacy. This can be due to various reasons as an online store doesn’t need a nice physical pharmacy to store drugs plus less manpower, electricity, etc. However, unlike a cloth shop certain drugs need to be stored in a refrigerator or dry places. Even an online pharmacy should have adequate places and facilities to store drugs properly.
Choice
You can easily compare prices and check if there are any discounts offered in pharmacies. Some of the pharmacies might deliver the drugs free of charge. You can also read the reviews and select the best pharmacy out of the online pharmacies.
Bad
Illegal online pharmacies
The online pharmacy should always be a legal and a registered store under the medicine and drug stores in each country. If it’s not registered it is an illegal store. On the internet sometimes it is difficult to know if a new pharmacy comes up whether this is a legal one or an illegal one. This is one of the major drawbacks and these pharmacies tend to sell subsided and expired drugs. A pharmacy with very cheap drug prices and from drugs can be brought without prescriptions can be illegal. Therefore, be careful from those stores.
Low-quality drugs
Until the drugs come to your doorstep you won’t be able to see the drugs. Sometimes low-quality expired and sub-standard drugs. These drugs will make you sicker and you might get other diseases as well. Also, if the drugs were not properly stored even if the expiration date is correct still the drug is bad and would not produce the desired effect. This can give you unwanted side-effects and make you sick.
Wrong drugs
Sometimes the drugs you ordered might not get delivered, instead, different drugs can be delivered. This can be due to a change of orders or wrong drug issued during dispensing of drugs. Ultimately you would be having the wrong drug for the disease. if you haven’t had the medication before or don’t have much knowledge about drugs you might take this and it will make you sick.
Thefts and frauds
The credit card information and your bank account details can be misused if it goes into the wrong hands. Also, even after ordering drugs and paying the amount the drugs might not get delivered. Since there is no physical store it would be difficult for you to get a refund or make a complaint. These illegal business persons are difficult to track as well.
As you can see there are good and bad with everything. Likewise, even with an online pharmacy, there are many advantages and few disadvantages as well. But if you be careful to purchase from a well-known online pharmacy most of these problems can be minimized. As most registered pharmacies provide a good quality service for their customers. Therefore, it’s up to you to choose your online pharmacy wisely. We hope this list of good and bad will help you in the process.
