Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) company policy demonstrates how seriously we take our responsibility toward the environment we live in and the people we share it with.

Businesses have a social responsibility to give back to the world and the people who live here, but many rely upon and take for granted our planet without giving back. We want to ensure that, as a businesses, we are doing our part to change that.

Our policy outlines the steps we are taking to demonstrate what responsibilities we are driving and what action we are taking to make a positive impact, both environmentally and ethically.

As well as being a responsible business we want to ensure we meet the highest standards of ethics, professionalism, inclusion and equality too.

Compliance

As experienced pharmacists working in the healthcare industry for many years, we understand that using an online pharmacy can be a disconcerting process. Whether it’s dealing with a serious health issue or perhaps one you might otherwise find embarrassing to discuss, you want to know you are dealing with qualified and trustworthy professionals who have your best interests at heart.

So you quite rightly should be considering whether you want to buy online and you should certainly do your homework before purchasing to find out if the online company is reputable and legitimate.

The best way to do that is to find out if the pharmacy complies to the standards set by the professional governing bodies that have been created to monitor pharmaceutical standards and identify the most trusted and compliant services.

These are all of the governing bodies within the pharmaceutical industry (CQC, GPhC, NPA, & MHRA):

Here at The Independent Pharmacy we comply with all of the above bodies and ensure the highest possible standards for our products and services. Find out more in the 'Regulation' section below.

Regulations

The Independent Pharmacy has been in operation since 2013 and was established by two registered pharmacists and is run by a team of GPs, doctors, and pharmacists. Patients safety is our number one concern, and you can be certain that The Independent Pharmacy is legitimate because:

• The Independent Pharmacy is regulated by the MHRA, GPhC & CQC
• You can only buy prescription medication after a private prescription has been produced by The Independent Pharmacy’s prescribing team and passed to our pharmacy
• The Independent Pharmacy is also an NHS pharmacy and offers NHS prescription services in the UK
• All of the medication sold by The Independent Pharmacy is sourced from the same wholesalers as your local chemist based in the UK.
• We will carry out a background identity check when you register with us and before you can buy any prescription medication, just as you would with your GP.

For more information visit our compliance and regulations page.

Business ethics

We’ll promote:

• Safety and fair dealing
  
• Respect towards our patients
  
• Anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices
  
• Patient health over profit
  
• Paying a living wage to all employees
  
• No use of zero-hours contracts
  
• Professionalism, efficiency, integrity and honesty with our patients and suppliers
  
• A constant system of feedback and improvement for all policies and processes
  
• Working with regulatory bodies to improve standards of digital healthcare in the UK
  

Ethical Trading

As well as dealing ethically with our customers, it is our responsibility to ensure we trade ethically with suppliers and manufacturers too.

Here are the measures we take to ensure our business is trading ethically:

• We only use wholesalers who have a current wholesale licence issued by the MHRA
  
• For non-medical procurement, we always aim to work with local suppliers, where possible
  

Protecting the environment and sustainability

Protecting our environment is a huge responsibility for everyone, including businesses. So we take active measures to make as positive a difference as we can.

Our steps to ensure our business works to protect the environment and ensure sustainability include:

• Recycling
  
• Conserving energy & using renewable energy where possible
  
• Using recyclable or biodegradable packaging, where possible
  
• Using environmentally-friendly technologies
  
• Encouraging and enabling employees to travel to work by public transport, car-share, bicycle or walking
  
• Minimising unnecessary travel by conduction meetings remotely, where possible
  
• Reducing printing and reliance on single-use products
  

Human rights

Our company is dedicated to protecting human rights. We are a committed equal opportunity employer and will abide by all fair labor practices.

We’ll ensure that our activities do not directly or indirectly violate human rights in any country, we will guarantee we don’t risk the health and safety of our employees and local communities and we support diversity, inclusion and equal pay.

Volunteering

Our company will encourage its employees to volunteer and plans to organise volunteering events internally. We may sponsor volunteering events from other organisations and are happy to collaborate with charities.

Supporting the community

Our company may initiate and support community investment and educational programs.

Learning

We actively encourage our all our staff to undertake further training to broaden their skills and knowledge. This enables our employees to stay abreast with the medical community and keep-up-to-date with the latest developments to help our customers.