{"id":272325,"date":"2025-11-19T21:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/272325\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T21:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:29:12","slug":"we-wont-remove-web-listings-for-non-partner-pharmacies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/272325\/","title":{"rendered":"We won\u2019t remove web listings for non-partner pharmacies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Exclusive: Healthera has told P3pharmacy it \u201cusually\u201d refuses requests from contractors to have their listing removed from its directory, despite some frustrated pharmacy owners claiming the directory is \u201cmisleading\u201d and \u201cunethical\u201d in how it operates.<\/p>\n

In addition to operating a public-facing directory of all UK pharmacies that often appears prominently in search engines when a member of the public looks up a particular pharmacy, Healthera offers certain services to its roughly 1,700 partner pharmacies, who pay subscription fees starting at \u00a389 a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The services offered through the platform include consultation booking, analytics, direct messaging with patients and OTC medicine sales, as well as facilitating repeat prescription ordering for patients through Healthera\u2019s app and website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But a number of contractors who do not work with the company have complained that the \u2018Order your prescription\u2019 button that appears on every pharmacy listing diverts users away from non-Healthera partners and towards partner pharmacies.<\/p>\n

Posting on LinkedIn today (November 19), one superintendent pharmacist said: \u201cThis is a massive problem in the industry that I approached Healthera about. They have simply ignored me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey list all our pharmacies on their website and have an \u2018order your prescription\u2019 button on the page which takes the customer through another ordering process that is nothing to do with us. Clearly misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Boo Dhaliwal, owner of Touchwood Pharmacy in south London, posted: “We do not partner with the Healthera prescription ordering app, and as a result our patients cannot order prescriptions through their platform.<\/p>\n

“Despite this, Healthera website lists all of my pharmacy branches.<\/p>\n

“Healthera, please remove any reference to pharmacies you are not formally engaged with.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mr Dhaliwal argued that these practices are \u201cunethical\u201d and \u201cundermine trust\u201d.<\/p>\n

P3pharmacy tested these claims on the Healthera website earlier today by selecting the directory listing for a nearby pharmacy and clicking on the \u2018Order your prescription\u2019 button on that pharmacy\u2019s page.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

After filling in patient details, at the end of the web navigation we were given the option of placing our prescription order at a different pharmacy to the one we originally chose, with no option to pick the original pharmacy.<\/p>\n

When approached by P3pharmacy, Healthera CEO Quintus Liu said: \u201cHealthera maintains a national directory of all UK-registered pharmacies to help patients reliably find up-to-date information about local services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe directory works in a similar way to platforms such as Google Business or NHS-linked pharmacy finders – it contains factual information about pharmacies irrespective of whether they partner with us commercially.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur general approach is that listings form part of a factual public-interest directory, so we do not usually remove entries. Doing so would reduce the accuracy of the directory and make it harder for patients to locate the right pharmacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, we absolutely understand that pharmacies may have specific concerns, and we always look at these on a case-by-case basis to ensure we handle them fairly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also very happy to update any part of a listing – including opening hours, service descriptions, images or other details – to ensure everything is accurate and reflects the pharmacy\u2019s preferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a pharmacy feels any part of the listing could be improved or clarified, we encourage them to contact us directly so we can resolve this promptly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

When P3pharmacy requested further clarification, Healthera did not reveal what options are available to contractors who are concerned about their listing potentially redirecting patients to a different pharmacy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Business news Follow this topic Bookmark Record learning outcomes Exclusive: Healthera has told P3pharmacy it \u201cusually\u201d refuses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-272325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}