Warning over online GPs as struck-off doctor discovered using loophole to prescribe ‘unsafe’ drugs

He added: “As a GP it makes me very angry that patients are put at risk and as a regulator it makes me even more certain that we need to try and get the legislation changed so that people can’t just bypass our regulatory activities.”

In 2009, the General Medical Council banned Eden from prescribing and described him as putting profit before patient care after two of his patients became addicted to drugs he had prescribed through his UK-based business, E-Med.

Reporters posed as potential investors and filmed Eden describing the CQC as “idiots”. He revealed that he now works in Europe to avoid England’s regulatory bodies. He later told Panorama that he respects the CQC and has never sought to evade its oversight. He said all of his business investments overseas are subject to their own regulations.

As part of the investigation, Eleanor, who was treated for anorexia when she was a teenager, was able to order three months worth of prescription slimming pills from one company based in Romania.

Eleanor said: “I’ve got so many diet pills here and if I’d still been in the depths of my illness it would have been so dangerous for me, literally a massive, massive box of them.”

Panorama: Online Doctors Uncovered will be broadcast on Monday evening.

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/05/warning-online-gps-struck-off-doctor-discovered-using-loophole/