Ratish Sharma ran out of Telma 40, his blood pressure tablets, and opened a quick-commerce app. The app told him an in-house doctor would call to check the order and that he should have his prescription ready. He had none.
The call came anyway. The “doctor” asked his age and how long he had been taking the drug. Seconds later the order was approved, and in under 10 minutes a strip of Telma 40 reached his door, in good condition.
By the platform’s own rules, nothing went wrong. That is the problem Times Now Digital set out to test with doctors: is a short phone call enough for medicines the law says need a prescription?
What a prescription is for
If a person without hypertension answered those questions convincingly, would the order still go through? And can a brief call stand in for a doctor’s look at a patient’s medical history, kidney function and other medicines?
Dr Amit Prakash Singh, a consultant in internal medicine at CK Birla Hospital in Delhi, said prescription rules exist “primarily to protect patients by ensuring medicines are used safely and appropriately.” Telma 40, which contains telmisartan, is prescribed only after weighing blood pressure, kidney function, medical history and other drugs the patient takes.
Without that check, Singh said, a person may end up on the wrong drug or the wrong dose. The complications he listed include excessively low blood pressure, dizziness, fainting, kidney dysfunction and dangerous interactions. Self-medication can also delay the diagnosis of an underlying problem.
Dr Khazi Javeed Irfan, a senior consultant at SPARSH Hospital in Bengaluru, called a prescription “much more than a formality.” Drugs for chronic conditions need regular monitoring, which a verification call cannot provide. A patient could combine the medicine with unsuitable ones or take it despite kidney disease, low blood pressure or an electrolyte imbalance.
The risks go beyond blood pressure pills, said Dr Ishwar Gilada, a Mumbai physician and infectious diseases expert. Easy access can encourage self-medication that masks serious illness. Unrestricted antibiotics feed antimicrobial resistance. Long unsupervised use of sleeping pills, anti-anxiety drugs and opioid painkillers can lead to dependence.
Check the strip when it arrives
Online ordering has another weakness. At a pharmacy counter you can read the expiry date before paying. With an app, the strip is packed and dispatched without your input, and the sale is done by the time it arrives.
Taking an expired tablet by accident is unlikely to cause immediate harm in most cases, though it may work less well. “Expiry dates indicate the period during which manufacturers can guarantee a medicine’s safety, quality and potency when stored correctly,” Singh said.
Some products fare worse. Insulin, vaccines, biologics, eye drops, nitroglycerin preparations and reconstituted liquid antibiotics can deteriorate much faster and should never be used past expiry.
Dr Sufi Roomi, medical spokesperson for Jolly Healthcare, advised checking the expiry date, batch number, packaging seal and bill after delivery. A short remaining shelf life may not suit long-term treatment, he said, and damaged packaging can point to poor storage.
Gilada urged calm for anyone who has already swallowed an expired pill. “By taking an expired medicine, you do not expire,” he said. The risk depends on the drug, how long it has been out of date and how it was kept. Insulin and nitroglycerin are the exceptions, since even a small loss of potency can be life-threatening in an emergency.
The doctors agree that quick-commerce and e-pharmacy platforms have made medicines easier to get, especially for people managing chronic illness. They say convenience should not replace clinical judgement.
