Updated 10th December 2014: Inhouse Pharmacy have shut many of their old web sites and moved to inhousepharmacy.vu. It is not totally clear why this happened, but they have been emailing many existing customers with a new URL.
I had been editing earlier posts with updates, but that was getting confusing so here is the latest as of 8th May that I know of:
On the topic of what IHP are saying publicly, they clarified their earlier email as follows:
These changes apply worldwide. Visa do not want us shipping prescription meds – they do not agree with it.
In terms of what they are actually doing, this is more complicated. I have heard from numerous people who ordered from IHP over the weekend using a credit or debit card, were not asked for a prescription at the order stage (after logging in) and have had shipping confirmation. Conversely, I have also heard from people ordering yesterday (7th May) who have been “flatly refused”. Regular customers of the .biz site seem to have the most luck, whereas new customers or those who previously used the European (.com) site which has a separate system for customer accounts are stuck. I have always used the .com site and I cannot order without a prescription.
In case anyone is curious, although I have a repeat prescription from my GP I’ve always chosen to order from IHP because it is easier than having to worry about getting to the GPs during working hours to move little bits of paper around. It’s also as a personal statement on bodily autonomy and not handing over power to doctors. I have placed an order with an alternative site, UnitedPharmaciesUK, but do not expect to receive anything for another few days.