Terms and Conditions

How this document works

This document contains everything that governs your use of doctor.uk and your treatment. It is in parts because two different organisations are involved and they are responsible for different things.

Doctor UK Health is not a healthcare provider and does not assess, treat, prescribe for or supply medicines to anyone. Your care is provided by your Treating Provider, who is named to you before you pay and identified in full in the provider details panel at the end of this document.

Where Part A and Part B overlap, Part B prevails on anything to do with your treatment.

Complaints are dealt with in a separate document. Your Treating Provider publishes its own Complaints Policy, which is available on doctor.uk and which it will send you on request.

Annex 2 is versioned separately from the rest of this document and has its own version history. Adding a provider to it, or updating an entry, is not a change to these terms and does not affect any agreement you have already made. This is explained in Part B, section 15.

Part A — Using this website

1. About these terms

1.1These terms govern your use of the doctor.uk website. The website is operated by Doctor UK Health Ltd, trading as Doctor.uk, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17442409) with its registered office at 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ.

1.2By using the website you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use it.

1.3These terms are about the website only. If you go on to use the weight management service, your treatment is governed by the Patient Terms of Treatment, which is a separate agreement between you and your Treating Provider. Where the two overlap, the Patient Terms of Treatment prevail.

2. Doctor UK Health is not a healthcare provider

2.1Doctor UK Health operates this website and provides marketing, booking and payment services. Doctor UK Health is not a healthcare provider, is not a pharmacy, and is not registered with the Care Quality Commission because it does not carry on any regulated activity.

2.2Clinical care is provided by registered healthcare providers listed in the Participating Providers Register. If you use the service, you will be told which one is treating you before you pay.

3. Information on this website is not medical advice

3.1Content on this website is general information. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a recommendation that any treatment is right for you. Only a clinician who has assessed you can tell you that.

3.2How a change in dose affects what you pay depends on your plan. The prices for your plan are set out on doctor.uk before you start, so you can see what any change would mean, and if your clinician changes your dose we tell you what you will pay before it takes effect. If you do not want to continue on that basis you can cancel without penalty, and you will not be charged for anything not yet supplied.

3.3If you have a medical emergency, call 999 or go to your nearest emergency department. This website cannot help in an emergency.

3.4We try to keep information accurate and current, but medical knowledge changes and we cannot promise that everything here is complete or up to date at the moment you read it.

4. Using the website

You may use the website for your own personal, lawful purposes. You must not:

• use it in any way that breaks the law or could damage or impair it;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to it, its servers, or any connected system;
• introduce malicious code, or attempt any denial-of-service or similar attack;
• scrape, harvest, mine or systematically extract content or data from it;
• use automated systems to access it in a way that sends more requests than a person could reasonably produce;
• copy, reproduce, republish or exploit its content commercially without permission;
• impersonate anyone, or give false information;
• use it to make a fraudulent or duplicate application; or
• reverse engineer or attempt to derive the source code of any part of it.

We may suspend or withdraw access if you breach this section, and may report criminal activity to the relevant authorities.

5. Your account

5.1You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has access.

5.2Information you give us must be accurate. If it changes, please update it — this matters particularly where clinical or delivery information is involved.

5.3We may suspend or close an account where these terms are breached, where we suspect fraud, or where required by law.

6. Intellectual property

6.1The doctor.uk name, brand, marks, design and website content are owned by Doctor UK Health or licensed to it, and are protected by intellectual property law.

6.2Clinical content is owned by the participating providers and used with permission.

6.3You may view and print content for your own personal use. You may not use it commercially without written permission.

7. Links

7.1Links to other websites are provided for information. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, and a link is not an endorsement.

7.2You may link to our home page fairly and lawfully, provided you do not imply an association or approval that does not exist. We may withdraw permission at any time.

8. Availability

8.1We do not promise the website will always be available or uninterrupted. We may suspend, withdraw or restrict all or part of it, including for maintenance.

8.2You are responsible for your own arrangements for accessing it, and for making sure anyone using it through your connection knows these terms.

9. Our responsibility to you

9.1Nothing here excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.

9.2Subject to that, and if you use the website as a consumer, we are not liable for loss that was not foreseeable, for loss arising from use of the website for business purposes, or for loss caused by content on websites we link to.

9.3We are not liable for clinical care. That is your Treating Provider’s responsibility under the Patient Terms of Treatment.

9.4We do not guarantee the website is free of viruses. Please use your own protection.

10. Privacy and cookies

How we handle your information is set out in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice. Please read them — the Privacy Notice explains a deliberate separation between the marketing part of the website and the clinical part, and why your health information is not used for advertising.

11. Changes

We may change these terms. The version in force is the one published here, and the date of the last update is shown at the top. Please check when you return.

12. Complaints about the website

Complaints about the website, billing, delivery or customer service go to hello@doctor.uk. Complaints about clinical care go to your Treating Provider, whose details are in the provider details panel on your documents.

13. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You may bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales, or in the courts of the part of the UK where you live.

Part B — Your treatment

1. Who you are contracting with — please read this first

1.1doctor.uk is a website operated by Doctor UK Health Ltd. Doctor UK Health is not a healthcare provider, is not a pharmacy, and does not assess, treat, prescribe for or supply medicines to anyone. Doctor UK Health handles the website, the booking process and payment.

1.2Your clinical care is provided by a registered healthcare provider. We call them your Treating Provider. They are a separate organisation from Doctor UK Health, regulated by the Care Quality Commission, and they are the ones responsible for assessing you, deciding whether treatment is appropriate, prescribing, and supplying any medicine.

1.3These terms are the agreement between you and your Treating Provider. Doctor UK Health is not a party to it, except that Doctor UK Health collects your payment as your Treating Provider’s agent — see section 11.

1.4We tell you the name of your Treating Provider before you pay anything. It also appears in your order confirmation and on the provider details panel of every document we send you. If you are ever unsure who is treating you, that panel will tell you.

1.5You will be treated by one provider, not by a group of them. The current list of participating providers is in the Participating Providers Register, which forms part of these terms.

2. Definitions

3. Who can use the service

3.1You must be 18 or over, resident in the United Kingdom, and able to give your own consent to treatment.

3.2You must give a UK delivery address. We cannot deliver outside the UK.

3.3Meeting the basic criteria does not mean treatment will be offered. Whether treatment is clinically appropriate for you is a decision for your Treating Provider’s clinician, made after assessing you.

4. The assessment

4.1The assessment is a clinical questionnaire. It belongs to your Treating Provider, and your answers go to them, not to Doctor UK Health. It is not tracked for advertising purposes.

4.2The assessment does not decide anything. It gathers information and prepares a summary for the clinician who will see you. A clinician makes every decision about your care.

4.3You must answer honestly and completely, including about other medicines you take, conditions you have, and any weight management medicine you have taken before, from any source. This matters more than it may seem: incomplete answers can lead to a clinician making a decision that is unsafe for you.

4.4If your health, medicines or circumstances change during treatment, tell your Treating Provider.

5. The consultation and the clinical decision

5.1Your consultation is with a clinician registered with the General Medical Council and licensed to practise, working for your Treating Provider.

5.2Your Treating Provider may decide not to offer treatment, to defer a decision, to ask for further information or tests, to recommend you see your own GP, or to offer treatment different from what you expected. Any of these is a proper clinical outcome.

5.3Paying for a consultation buys you an assessment by a clinician. It does not buy a prescription, and no one can promise you one. If you are not offered treatment, you have still received the service you paid for. Section 12 explains what happens to your money.

5.4With your consent, your Treating Provider will normally tell your own GP that you are receiving this treatment. Sharing this information is strongly encouraged for your safety. If you do not consent, your Treating Provider will consider whether it is safe to treat you without it, and may decline.

6. Prescribing, including off-label treatment

6.1Any prescription is issued by a clinician working for your Treating Provider, who takes clinical responsibility for it.

6.2Some treatment in this service may be off-label — meaning a licensed medicine used in a way, at a dose, or on a schedule that differs from the terms of its marketing authorisation. Off-label prescribing is lawful and is a normal part of medical practice, but it means the manufacturer has not sought approval for that particular use.

6.3If off-label treatment is proposed for you, your clinician will explain what is off-label about it, why they are recommending it, what is known and not known about it, and what the alternatives are. You will be asked to give separate, specific consent to it, and you can decline off-label treatment and ask about licensed alternatives without your care being affected.

6.4You can withdraw consent to any treatment at any time. Speak to your Treating Provider first, because stopping some treatments abruptly needs planning.

7. Your medicine and its supply

7.1Medicines are supplied by your Treating Provider under regulation 223 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, which permits a doctor to supply medicines to their own patients.

7.2Deliveries are sent to the UK address you give, in plain packaging that does not indicate what is inside. Some medicines need refrigeration and are sent in temperature-controlled packaging.

7.3Someone aged 18 or over must be available to receive the delivery. If a temperature-controlled delivery is missed and the medicine cannot be kept within its required temperature range, it may no longer be safe to use and a replacement may have to be paid for. Please make sure someone can take it in.

7.4Check your delivery on arrival. If anything is damaged, missing, or looks wrong, contact your Treating Provider before using it.

7.5Order in good time. We recommend placing your order at least 5 days before the day your next dose is due. Postal delays happen, and this gives us room to deal with one without you missing a dose. Ordering later is not a problem, but we cannot guarantee arrival before your dose day, and we cannot treat a late delivery as our fault where the order was placed too close to it.

7.6If your medicine has not arrived by the day before your dose is due, contact us rather than waiting. Do not double up a dose to catch up, and do not take a dose early without speaking to your Treating Provider.

8. Storing and disposing of your medicine

• Store it exactly as the leaflet and label tell you, including refrigeration where required.
• Never share it with anyone else, even someone with similar circumstances. It was prescribed for you after an assessment of you.
• Keep it out of the sight and reach of children.
• Dispose of needles and used pens in a sharps bin, not in household waste. Your Treating Provider will tell you how to obtain one and how to return it.
• Return unused or expired medicine to a pharmacy for disposal. Do not put it in the bin or down the drain.

9. Side effects and when to get help

9.1All medicines can cause side effects. Read the patient information leaflet supplied with your medicine.

9.2If you feel seriously unwell, call 999 or go to your nearest emergency department. Do not wait to contact us. This is a non-urgent service and we cannot help in an emergency.

9.3Report side effects to your Treating Provider. You can also report them directly to the MHRA through the Yellow Card scheme at yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk. Your Treating Provider reports suspected adverse reactions as well.

9.4Doctor UK Health cannot answer clinical questions. If you contact Doctor UK Health about anything clinical, it will be passed to your Treating Provider.

10. Ongoing treatment and reviews

10.1Continuing treatment depends on clinical review. Your Treating Provider will tell you how often reviews happen and what they involve, and may decline to continue treatment if a review is missed.

10.2Your Treating Provider may change your dose, pause treatment or stop it, based on clinical judgement. This can happen at any point, including where you would prefer to continue.

10.3Where treatment is supplied on a recurring basis, we will tell you clearly before you commit what you will be charged and how often, remind you before each payment, and let you cancel at any time through your account in a couple of clicks. Cancelling payments is a payment decision; if you want to stop treatment, tell your Treating Provider so it can be done safely.

10.4A recurring payment arrangement pays for your treatment. It is not a standing entitlement to medication, and it cannot be, because every prescription requires a doctor’s decision. If your Treating Provider pauses or stops your treatment, or a review is overdue, your payments pause or stop with it and you are refunded for anything not supplied. You will not continue paying for something you are not receiving.

10.5We offer treatment on different plans. What each one includes, how it is paid for and what it costs are set out on doctor.uk, and we tell you which plan applies to you and exactly what it includes before you pay anything. Plans may change over time, and new ones may be introduced — the plan that applies to you is the one you were shown when you signed up.

10.6Whichever plan you are on, the same things are always true. You see the full price before you pay. You are never charged for medicine that has not been prescribed for you. You can stop at any time. And if a charge applies that is not simply the price of your treatment — a deposit, for example — we tell you about it, and what happens to it, before you commit.

10.7Some plans supply your medicine in smaller, more frequent amounts, and take payment before each one is sent. Where that applies, we tell you before you sign up. If a payment is not made, that supply is not dispensed and nothing is sent — we simply do not dispense medicine that has not been paid for. Tell your Treating Provider if a break in supply is likely, because some treatments need planning around one.

10.8On some plans your clinical care and your medicine are charged separately. Where that applies, the care fee covers your clinical care — the assessment, the consultation, reviews and ongoing support — and is not a payment for medicine. We tell you before you pay whether that fee is refundable if treatment is not prescribed for you.

10.9The Pricing, Subscriptions and Price Changes policy sets out how recurring payments, reminders, cancellation and price changes work in full, and forms part of these terms.

11. Prices and payment

11.1Prices are shown before you pay and include VAT where it applies. There are no charges beyond those shown to you.

11.2Doctor UK Health collects your payment as agent for your Treating Provider. Paying Doctor UK Health discharges what you owe your Treating Provider. Money collected is held for your Treating Provider and passed to them.

11.3Your bank or card statement will show a neutral descriptor. It will not name a medicine or describe the nature of the service.

11.4If a payment fails we will contact you before doing anything else. Deliveries pause until it is resolved, and nothing further is dispensed. We do not charge a fee for a failed payment.

Booking deposits

11.8We may ask for a booking deposit. Whether we do, and how much it is, depends on the plan you choose and may change from time to time. Where a deposit applies we tell you the amount, and the full price of treatment if it goes ahead, before you book. If no deposit is shown at booking, none is payable. You will never be asked for a deposit without being told what it is for and what happens to it.

11.9What happens to your deposit:

11.10The last row is the only situation in which you lose your deposit. If you tell us you cannot make it — however late, and whatever the reason — you get your deposit back. We only retain it where an appointment was held open and nobody told us it would not be used.

11.11We retain it because a clinician’s appointment cannot be reallocated at no notice, and the amount reflects what that costs. It is not a penalty and we do not profit from it. As a matter of policy we waive it the first time it happens.

11.12Refunds are made to the payment method you used, within 5 working days.

11.5Our prices can change at any time. The price that applies to you is the one shown to you before you pay, and a change never affects an order you have already paid for.

11.6If you pay us regularly, you are protected. We will not change your price without telling you first. We write to you individually at least 30 days before a new price applies, tell you what it will be and when it starts, and you can cancel before then without penalty, without notice and without giving a reason. If you do nothing, the new price applies from the date we gave you.

11.7Where you pay for each order separately rather than on a recurring basis, the price for your next order is simply the price shown when you place it.

12. Cancelling, returns and refunds

12.1This section summarises the position. The full policy is in the Cancellation, Returns and Refunds Policy, which forms part of these terms.

12.2You normally have 14 days to cancel something bought online, and you have that right here. If you ask us to arrange a consultation within those 14 days, we will ask you to confirm that you want us to start straight away, and to acknowledge that once the consultation has taken place you can no longer cancel that part of the service — because by then we have provided it. Everything else remains cancellable.

12.3It does not apply to your medicine once it has been dispensed. Dispensing means it has been prepared, labelled and packed for you personally against your prescription. From that moment it cannot lawfully be supplied to anyone else, and it is destroyed if returned. There is nothing for us to recover, which is why we cannot refund it — and this is true whether or not it has yet left the building.

12.4In law, a medicine dispensed against a prescription for a named patient is clearly personalised to that patient, and personalised goods are excluded from the cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Once it has been delivered, a second exclusion also applies, because these are sealed goods that are not suitable for return for health protection or hygiene reasons — and several of them must be kept refrigerated within a narrow temperature range, which we cannot verify once they have left our control.

12.5You can cancel at any time before dispensing and get a full refund of what you paid for the medicine. We tell you when your order is being dispensed, so you know when that point has passed.

12.6None of this affects your rights if something is wrong — if your medicine arrives damaged, incorrect, out of temperature range or faulty, contact your Treating Provider and it will be replaced or refunded. Your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are not affected by anything in these terms.

13. Your records and your privacy

13.1Your Treating Provider keeps your clinical records and is responsible for them.

13.1ADoctor UK Health staff do not look at your clinical records, your assessment answers, your prescriptions or your doses. A small number of named Doctor UK Health staff help run the computer system your provider uses — setting up accounts, managing the subscription and fixing faults. They work under your provider’s control and instructions, they are bound by the same duty of confidentiality as healthcare staff, their access is logged and reviewed, and they are not permitted to look at clinical records. Your provider can remove their access at any time.

13.2Doctor UK Health does see the information needed to take your payment and get your delivery to you — your name, contact details, address and the amount. It acts for your Treating Provider when doing so. Order descriptions and delivery labels do not name your medicine.

13.3Your assessment answers and clinical information are never used for advertising, never shared with advertising platforms, and never used to target you.

13.4Our Privacy Notice explains all of this in full, including your rights over your information.

14. Complaints

14.1Complaints about your clinical care, your assessment, your consultation, prescribing or your medicine go to your Treating Provider. Their contact details are in the provider details panel.

14.2Complaints about the website, billing, delivery or customer service go to Doctor UK Health.

14.3If you are not sure, contact either. Complaints are passed to whoever should handle them and you will be told where yours has gone.

14.4As a private patient you cannot take a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which covers NHS care. If you remain unhappy after your Treating Provider’s complaints process, you can ask for it to be reviewed by someone more senior who has not been involved. You can also raise concerns about a provider with the Care Quality Commission, or about a clinician with the General Medical Council, at any time, whether or not you have complained to us first.

14.5Complaining will never affect the care you receive.

15. If your Treating Provider changes

15.1More than one provider may participate in doctor.uk. Whoever they are, you are always treated by one named provider.

15.2Adding a provider to the Register does not change who treats you. Your care continues with your existing Treating Provider unless you are told otherwise.

Your care may be transferred to another provider

15.3Your Treating Provider may transfer your care, your treatment plan and your records to another registered healthcare provider. This can happen because it reorganises — for example moving a private service into a separate company — or because your care is passing to a different organisation.

15.4By agreeing to these terms you agree to that transfer taking place. We will not need to ask your permission again when it happens. We explain here what protections apply and how to object, and we ask you to read this section rather than skip it.

What we guarantee if it happens

• The new provider will be registered with the Care Quality Commission before anything transfers.
• It takes on all of the same obligations to you that your current provider has. Nothing you are entitled to is reduced.
• It will hold indemnity cover at least equivalent to your current provider’s.
• Your treatment does not change. You will not be reassessed, your plan will not be reset, and there will be no gap in your supply.
• You will not be charged anything for the transfer, and any deposit or credit you hold moves with you.
• You can stop treatment instead, at any point, and you will not be charged for anything not yet supplied.
• The new provider takes on responsibility for your earlier care as well as your future care, so you have one place to go with any question, concern or complaint — including about treatment you received before the transfer.

You will be told beforehand

15.5We will write to you individually, by email, at least 30 days before any transfer. We will tell you the new provider’s name, address and registration details, what is changing, what is not, and who to contact with questions. If your email bounces we will write to you by post.

15.6You have until the date given in that letter to object. If you object, your records will not be transferred, and we will talk to you about your options — continuing with another provider, or stopping treatment with nothing further to pay.

15.7If you do not reply, the transfer goes ahead on the date given. You do not need to do anything to accept it.

15.8After the transfer, the new provider will contact you to confirm its identity, its contact details and how it handles your information.

If a different organisation takes over your care

15.9Where your care would pass to a genuinely different organisation, with different clinicians, we treat that as a bigger change. In that situation we will ask for your consent before transferring your records, rather than relying on section 15.4.

15.10Where a transfer takes place, your records move with you in full, including the records of care you received before the transfer. The new provider becomes responsible for them and is who you ask for a copy, or contact about anything relating to your earlier treatment.

16. Things we cannot do

• We cannot help in an emergency. Call 999.
• We cannot replace your own GP. Stay registered with a GP practice.
• We do not provide urgent or out-of-hours care.
• We cannot treat you if we do not have enough information to do so safely.
• We cannot prescribe on request. Every prescription follows a clinical assessment.

17. Responsibility

17.1Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. Your Treating Provider does not attempt to exclude liability for the clinical care it provides, and could not do so if it tried.

17.2Your Treating Provider will provide your care with reasonable care and skill. It is responsible for your clinical care, your medicines and your records.

17.3Doctor UK Health is responsible for the website, payment handling and non-clinical support. Doctor UK Health is not responsible for clinical care, and your Treating Provider is not responsible for the website.

17.4Neither is responsible for harm caused by information you did not give or gave inaccurately, by not following instructions given to you, by sharing your medicine with someone else, or by storing it incorrectly.

17.5Treatment outcomes vary between people. No outcome is guaranteed, and none is promised.

18. Changes to these terms

18.1These terms may change. The version that applies to you is the one in force when you agreed to them, except where a change is needed for legal, regulatory or safety reasons.

18.2Where treatment is ongoing, we will give you reasonable notice of a material change and you may cancel without penalty if you do not accept it.

18.3A change to the Participating Providers Register is not a change to these terms.

19. General

19.1You cannot transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else. Your Treating Provider may transfer its obligations only as described in section 15.

19.2If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

19.3These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You may bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales, or in the courts of the part of the UK where you live.

Part C — Accessibility and adjustments

1. Our commitment

We want everyone to be able to use doctor.uk, whatever device they use and whatever adjustments they need. That matters more for a health service than for most websites, because the people most likely to face barriers online are often the people who most need the service.

We are not a public body, so the public sector accessibility regulations do not apply to us. We work to the same standard anyway, and the Equality Act 2010 requires us to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage. We take that seriously rather than minimally.

2. The standard we work to

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 at level AA. This means, among other things, that you should be able to:

• navigate the whole site, including booking and the health assessment, using a keyboard alone;
• use it with a screen reader such as NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver or TalkBack;
• zoom to 400% without losing content or having to scroll sideways;
• change colours, contrast and fonts through your browser or operating system;
• read text against a background with sufficient contrast;
• take as long as you need, without being timed out unexpectedly; and
• understand error messages and know how to fix them.

3. How well we currently do

We have not yet had the site independently audited, so we do not claim full compliance. We have built to the standard above and we test as we go. We would rather say that than claim a certification we do not hold.

If you hit something you cannot use, please tell us. It is genuinely useful and we will fix it or find you another way to do what you were trying to do.

4. If you need something in a different format

We can provide our documents — terms, privacy information, treatment information and correspondence — in large print, plain text, easy read, audio or another format. There is no charge and you do not need to explain why.

Contact hello@doctor.uk. We will normally reply within 5 working days and tell you when to expect it.

5. Adjustments to your care

Accessibility is not only about the website. If you need an adjustment to take part in the service, tell us and we will arrange it. For example:

• a longer consultation, or one broken into shorter parts;
• a British Sign Language interpreter, or an interpreter in another language;
• a telephone consultation instead of video, or video instead of telephone;
• written confirmation of what was discussed and agreed;
• a supporter, carer or advocate present, with your consent;
• information sent in a specific format or to a specific address; or
• help completing the health assessment, including by phone with a member of staff.

Tell us when you book, or at any point afterwards. Adjustments are recorded so you do not have to ask again each time.

6. Reporting a problem

If you find something you cannot use, contact hello@doctor.uk and tell us the page and what happened. We will acknowledge within 5 working days, tell you what we can do and by when, and offer another way to do what you were trying to do in the meantime.

If you are not happy with our response, you can complain through our Complaints Policy. You can also contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service, which advises on the Equality Act.

7. How we test

We check accessibility whenever we make significant changes and review the site in full at least once a year. The health assessment is included in that testing, not exempt from it. Automated checks are supplemented by manual keyboard and screen reader testing.

Schedule 1 — Deposits, cancellation, returns and refunds

The short version

• Tell us you cannot make your appointment, and you get your deposit back. Any notice at all, any reason.
• Attend, and your deposit is either credited against your treatment or refunded in full — whichever way your consultation goes.
• The only time you lose a deposit is if you simply do not turn up and did not tell us.
• If treatment is not offered to you, you are refunded in full. You are never out of pocket for being assessed and turned down.
• Once a medicine has been dispensed for you it cannot be refunded, even if it has not been sent yet. Section 5 explains why. Before that point you can cancel and get your money back.
• If something is wrong with what we sent you, we fix it. That is separate from all of the above.
• Order at least 5 days before your dose is due, so a postal delay does not cost you a dose.

1. Booking deposits

1.1Some appointments require a deposit to book. Where one applies, we show you the amount, and the full cost of treatment if it goes ahead, before you commit to anything.

1.2A deposit is not an extra charge. If you go on to have treatment, it comes off the price.

1.3Only the last row results in you losing anything. We have written it that way deliberately: we would much rather you told us late than not at all, so we do not charge you for telling us late.

1.4We retain a deposit on non-attendance because a clinician’s appointment cannot be given to someone else at no notice. The amount reflects what that costs us. It is not a penalty, we do not profit from it, and we do not set it higher than the cost it covers.

1.5We waive it the first time. If you miss an appointment and it is the first time, tell us and we will refund you.

1.6If you missed your appointment because something happened — illness, an emergency, a bereavement, a caring crisis — tell us. Your Treating Provider can direct a refund in any case and does not have to give a reason. We will not ask you for evidence.

1.7Deposits are held for your Treating Provider from the moment you pay them. They are not the website operator’s money at any stage.

2. Your 14-day cancellation right

2.1Because you are buying online, you have 14 days to change your mind. This comes from the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

2.2If your consultation is scheduled within those 14 days, we will ask you to confirm two things when you book: that you want us to go ahead straight away rather than waiting, and that you understand you cannot cancel the consultation once it has actually happened. That is because by then we have provided it.

2.3Everything else stays cancellable. Cancelling the consultation before it happens is always free.

2.4To cancel, contact us using the details at section 8. You can use the model cancellation form in the Regulations but you do not have to — a message saying you want to cancel is enough.

3. If treatment is not offered to you

3.1Your Treating Provider may decide that treatment is not appropriate for you. That is a proper clinical outcome, and it happens.

3.2If it happens, you are refunded in full, including your deposit. You will not be charged for the consultation.

3.3This decision belongs to your Treating Provider. The website operator cannot overrule it and has no financial interest in it either way.

4. If you stop treatment

4.1You can stop at any time. Speak to your Treating Provider first, because some treatments need to be stopped in a planned way.

4.2Anything not yet dispatched is refunded in full. Anything already dispatched is covered by section 5.

4.3Where treatment is supplied on a recurring basis, you can cancel future deliveries at any time through your account or by contacting us, and we will remind you before each renewal. Cancelling deliveries is a payment decision — if you want to stop treatment, tell your Treating Provider so it can be done safely.

5. Medicines cannot be refunded once dispensed

5.1Once your medicine has been dispensed it cannot be refunded. Dispensing means it has been prepared, labelled and packed for you personally against your prescription — which happens before it is sent. Up until that moment you can cancel and get your money back in full.

5.1AWe know it seems odd that the cut-off is before the parcel leaves. The reason is that a medicine dispensed against your prescription, with your name on it, cannot lawfully be given to anyone else. If you cancel, it is destroyed. There is nothing for us to recover and nothing to resell.

5.1BWe will tell you when your order is being dispensed, so you always know when that point has passed. If you are unsure whether you want to go ahead, tell us before then.

5.2Once it has reached you there is a second reason. A medicine that has left our control cannot be verified as having been stored correctly. Several of the medicines in this service must be kept refrigerated within a narrow temperature range. We have no way of knowing what happened to it in your home, and neither do you.

5.4In law, a medicine dispensed against a prescription for a named patient is clearly personalised to that patient, and personalised goods are excluded from the cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Once delivered, the exclusion for sealed goods unsuitable for return on health protection or hygiene grounds also applies.

5.5Please still return unused or expired medicine to a pharmacy for safe disposal. You will not be refunded for it, but it must not go in your bin or down the drain.

6. If something is wrong

6.1Section 5 is about changing your mind. It has nothing to do with faults.

6.2If your order arrives damaged, incomplete, incorrect, outside its temperature range, or past its expiry date, contact your Treating Provider straight away and do not use it. It will be replaced or refunded, and you will not be charged for returning it.

6.3If a temperature-controlled delivery is missed and cannot be kept cold, it may no longer be safe to use. Where that is because nobody was there to receive it, a replacement may have to be paid for. We will always talk to you about this rather than simply charging you.

6.4Please order at least 5 days before your next dose is due. Postal services are usually reliable but not always, and that margin means a delay does not cost you a dose. If you order closer than that we will still send it as quickly as we can, but we cannot promise it will arrive in time and a late arrival in those circumstances is not something we can refund.

6.5If your order has not arrived by the day before your dose is due, contact us. Do not take a dose early or double up to catch up — speak to your Treating Provider first.

6.6Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are not affected by anything in this policy.

7. How refunds are made

• To the payment method you used, within 5 working days of the refund being agreed.
• In full. We do not deduct administration charges from refunds.
• Your bank may take a few more days to show it. If it has been 10 working days, contact us.
• Where a refund follows a clinical decision, your Treating Provider directs it and the website operator processes it.

8. Contact and complaints

If you are unhappy with the outcome, the Complaints Policy explains what happens next.

Schedule 2 — Pricing, subscriptions and price changes

The short version

• You always see the full price before you pay. There are no charges you were not shown.
• A subscription pays for your treatment. It does not guarantee you will be prescribed it — that is always a clinical decision.
• If your doctor stops or pauses your treatment, your payments stop too, and you are refunded for anything not supplied.
• Our prices can change at any time — but if you pay us regularly, we tell you before your price changes and you can opt out.
• You are never charged for medicine that has not been prescribed for you.
• You can cancel at any time, in a couple of clicks, without speaking to anyone.

1. What you are paying for

1.1Your payments cover the clinical service and the medicine supplied to you by your Treating Provider. They are collected by Doctor UK Health as your provider’s agent.

1.2A subscription is a payment arrangement. It is not a standing entitlement to medication, and no arrangement could be, because a prescription always requires a doctor’s decision.

1.3Continuing supply depends on clinical review. Your doctor may change your dose, pause treatment, or stop it — including at a point when you would prefer to continue. If that happens, your payments change or stop with it. You will not go on paying for something you are not receiving.

1.4If you miss a review, supply pauses until it happens, and so does your billing.

1A. Plans

Treatment is offered on different plans. What each includes, how it is paid for and what it costs are set out on doctor.uk. We tell you which plan applies to you and exactly what it includes before you pay anything. Plans may change and new ones may be introduced; the plan that applies to you is the one you were shown when you signed up.

1A.1 Whichever plan you are on: you see the full price before you pay, you are never charged for medicine that has not been prescribed for you, and you can stop at any time.

1A.2 Where a plan supplies your medicine in smaller, more frequent amounts, payment is taken before each supply is dispensed. If a payment is not made, that supply is not dispensed and nothing is sent. That is not a penalty — we simply do not dispense medicine that has not been paid for.

1A.3 Where your clinical care and your medicine are charged separately, the care fee covers your clinical care and is not a payment for medicine. We tell you before you pay whether that fee is refundable if treatment is not prescribed for you.

2. How prices are shown

• The full price, including VAT where it applies, before you commit to anything.
• Where you pay regularly: the amount, how often, and when the first and next payments are taken.
• Where a deposit applies: the deposit and the full treatment price together, never the deposit alone.
• Any delivery or other charge. Where there is none, we say so.
• What happens at the end of any introductory or discounted period, and what the price becomes.

We do not add charges at the end of the checkout that were not visible at the start.

3. If your dose changes

3.1Weight management treatment usually starts at a low dose and is adjusted over time. That is normal and expected.

3.2How a change in dose affects what you pay depends on your plan. The prices for your plan are set out on doctor.uk before you start, so you can see what any change would mean, and if your clinician changes your dose we tell you what you will pay before it takes effect. If you do not want to continue on that basis you can cancel without penalty, and you will not be charged for anything not yet supplied.

Whatever your plan, the decision about your dose is a clinical one, made by your clinician on clinical grounds. Price is not a factor in it, and your clinician is not paid more or less according to what they prescribe.

4. When we change prices

4.1Our prices can change at any time. Medicine costs move, taxes change, and the cost of running the service changes. The price that applies to you is the one shown to you before you pay, and a change never affects an order you have already paid for.

4.2If you pay for each order separately, this is straightforward: the price for your next order is the price shown when you place it. Nothing is ever taken without you seeing it first.

4.3If you pay us regularly, you are protected. We will not increase what you pay without telling you first and giving you a real chance to stop. Section 5 sets out how.

4.4We will not use a price change to pressure you, and we do not price differently for people we think are less likely to leave.

5. If you pay us regularly and your price is going up

5.1The cancellation link in that notice works in one step. We will not put a retention offer or a survey in the way of it.

5.2A price reduction takes effect without any of this. We simply charge you less.

6. Reminders before you are charged

6.1Before each recurring payment we will remind you: what is being taken, when, and how to cancel if you no longer want it.

6.2Where a discounted or introductory period is ending, we will tell you before the full price is charged, not after.

6.3Where your treatment renews for a long period, you will have a further period after renewal in which you can change your mind.

6.4Reminders come by email. Tell us if you would prefer another way.

7. Cancelling

• Cancel from your account in a couple of clicks, at any time, without speaking to anyone and without giving a reason.
• You can also cancel by emailing or calling us. We will not put you through a retention conversation.
• Cancelling is effective from when you tell us. Nothing further is taken.
• Anything you have paid for that has not yet been dispensed is refunded. Once medicine has been dispensed for you it cannot be refunded, even if it has not been sent — Schedule 1 explains why.
• Cancelling payments is not the same as stopping treatment. Speak to your Treating Provider, because some treatments need to be stopped in a planned way.

8. Failed payments

If a payment fails we will contact you before doing anything else, and try again after a short period. If it still fails, deliveries pause. We will not cancel your treatment without telling you, and we will not charge a fee for a failed payment.

9. Your legal rights

Nothing in this policy affects your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the consumer contracts legislation, including your right to cancel within 14 days of starting. Where those rights give you more than this policy does, they apply.

Annex 1 — Model cancellation form

You do not have to use this form. A message telling us you want to cancel is enough. It is provided because the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 require us to make it available.

Model Cancellation Form

Complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract.

To: Archvale Partnership, 66 Westwood Road, Tilehurst, Reading RG31 5PR, hello@doctor.uk

I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract of sale of the following goods [*] / for the supply of the following service [*],

Ordered on [*] / received on [*]

Name of consumer(s):

Address of consumer(s):

Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper):

Date:

[*] Delete as appropriate.

Annex 2 — Participating Providers Register

This Annex is versioned separately from the rest of these terms. Its own version history is at the end of it. A change to this Annex is not a change to these terms.

1. What this register is

1.1Clinical care on doctor.uk is provided by registered healthcare providers, not by the website. This register lists every provider currently participating in the service. It is referred to in the Patient Terms of Treatment and forms part of them.

1.2Each patient is treated by one named provider — their Treating Provider. Patients are never treated by the register as a whole, and no provider other than the one named to them has any responsibility for their care.

1.3Patients are told the name of their Treating Provider before they pay, in their order confirmation, and on all clinical correspondence. The provider’s full details also appear in the imprint block on the documents issued to them.

1.4Adding a provider to this register does not change the treatment arrangements of any existing patient. If a patient’s own Treating Provider changes, they are notified individually in accordance with the Patient Terms of Treatment.

1.5A provider may also change its legal form — for example moving a private service into a separate company — while the same clinicians continue to look after the same patients. Where that happens, a successor entry is added and the previous entry is retained and marked as ceased. Patients affected are written to individually in advance.

1.6Entries are never deleted. It must remain possible to establish which provider was responsible for a patient on any given date.

2. Current entries

Entry 1

3. Template for future entries

Each acceding provider completes an entry in the form above. No entry is published until the accession steps at section 5 of the Document Architecture note are complete and evidenced. An incomplete entry is not published, and a provider without a published entry may not be allocated patients.

4. Version history

Superseded versions of this register are retained and available on request. They are not deleted, so that the arrangements in force at the date of any past treatment can be established.

Your Treating Provider

This panel identifies the provider responsible for your care. Where more than one provider participates, it is completed for the provider treating you.

Website operator: Doctor UK Health Ltd, trading as Doctor.uk. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17442409. Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. Doctor UK Health Ltd is not a healthcare provider.

Version history

Superseded versions are retained and are not deleted, so that the position in force on any past date can be established.