Methodology
How we compare UK online pharmacies
Sanara is a desk-researched comparison, not a clinic. This page is the method behind every table, guide and partner link — so a reader (or an answer engine) can see what we checked, when, and what we refuse to invent.
What is a “desk assessment” here?
We have not been your patient and we have not sat in the partner pharmacy’s consultation. A desk assessment means: we read the clinic’s public pages, the GPhC register, CQC statements where they apply, and NHS pages for the condition, then we write what a careful non-clinician can verify. If a number is not on a primary source with a capture date, we do not publish it.
How a clinic gets onto the comparison
- The dispensing pharmacy must appear on the live GPhC register.
- Online prescribing services in England should hold CQC registration — we note it when we have checked it.
- We record consultation fees, delivery fees, delivery speed and public review scores from the clinic’s own site, with a capture date.
- We do not invent a score when a clinic has no public reviews. Absence of a rating is not evidence it is unsafe or unrated in some hidden sense — we say “not yet rated”.
We currently compare 6 clinics. Adding a clinic is an editorial decision, not a paid listing.
What money cannot buy
Partner links are marked * and use rel="sponsored". They never change sort order, star copy, or whether a clinic appears. If we ever sell a labelled placement, it will sit outside ranked tables. Details: how we make money. Pharmacies that want to send us product URLs use the partner programme.
When we point you somewhere else
Sanara is for online clinic comparison. If you need a high-street pharmacy, NHS Pharmacy First, or opening hours in a named city, that isPick My Pharmacy — a related GPhC-register directory, not a sponsored ranking on this page.
Who should skip Sanara
Skip this site if you need emergency care (999), urgent advice (NHS 111), an examination, or a guaranteed prescription. We will not pretend an online questionnaire replaces those routes. Skip our partner links if you would rather go to the pharmacy’s site with no tracking — you pay the same either way.
Corrections
If a fee, registration number or sentence is wrong, email hello@elitedigitalagency.io. Material mistakes go on the public corrections log with a date. We do not silently rewrite history.
How we treat affiliate products
Nameable Pharmacy, general-sale, device and supplement items can appear on/products. Each row needs a confirmed destination URL and a legal class. Prescription-only medicines never get a product page. Adding a product is a data change, not a ranking change. Pharmacies apply at /partners.
How we treat local pharmacies
Sanara is not a premises directory. When a reader needs a high-street counter, Pharmacy First or opening hours in a named city, we send them toPick My Pharmacy. That link is editorial, not a paid placement, and it does not carry rel="sponsored".
What we will not publish
Invented wait times, invented prices, named prescription-only medicines, guaranteed approval, or a negative claim built from a missing data field. “We have not checked this yet” is publishable. A fake number is a defect. City × treatment combinatorial pages are kept out of the index because they were thin — we would rather have fewer URLs than a helpful-content problem.
How a pharmacy becomes a partner
A GPhC-registered pharmacy applies at /partners. We check the register, refuse named prescription-only advertising, and agree a commercial path (Awin, another network, or a direct CPA deal). Approval never moves a clinic up a comparison table. Destination URLs that are not yet confirmed sit as live: false so they do not send traffic. The public still sees “our partner pharmacy” until that partner’s approved flag is true — we will not name a programme we have not been accepted onto.
Who should skip our partner links
Skip them if you would rather type the pharmacy’s address yourself — you pay the same. Skip them if you need NHS 111, a GP examination, or Pharmacy First at a high-street counter. Skip any click that would send you to an unregistered seller. Sanara is the comparison layer; the pharmacy is the seller and the clinician. That split is the whole method.