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Can I supply this? — UK optometry medicines checker
Enter a medicine to see its legal classification and whether a UK optometrist can sell, supply or administer it — and on what legal basis, with the source shown.
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Routes explained
- Over-the-counter sale — GSL, or a P medicine sold in the course of professional practice.
- Sale / supply under optometrist exemptions — the exemption in the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 that lets a registered (or Additional Supply) optometrist sell or supply medicines in the course of professional practice. For a base optometrist this covers GSL and Pharmacy (P) medicines (and, for Additional Supply optometrists, the Additional Supply list) — not the POMs listed above, whose only patient supply route is the emergency provision.
- Supply in an emergency — the emergency provision under which a registered optometrist may supply a small specified set of POMs (chloramphenicol, cyclopentolate, fusidic acid, tropicamide) to a patient as part of professional practice.
- Signed order — how stock for use and administration in practice is obtained; it is not a supply to the patient.
- PGD — a Patient Group Direction under a local scheme (for example a MECS/CUES pathway); the PGD document itself defines what may be supplied and by whom.
- IP prescription — an Independent Prescriber optometrist writing a prescription.
This tool is a guidance aid only. Medicines law is complex, the specific exemption lists are periodically updated, and local PGDs vary. It does not replace the current GOV.UK, Human Medicines Regulations 2012 or College of Optometrists guidance, or your clinical judgement — the registered optometrist remains responsible for lawful supply. Always confirm with the current source before supplying.
Sources: Human Medicines Regulations 2012, Part 12; GOV.UK, Rules for the sale, supply and administration of medicines for specific healthcare professionals; College of Optometrists, Use and supply of drugs or medicines in optometric practice — as held in the Iris medicines and pharmacology knowledge base.
Lists checked against GOV.UK and the College of Optometrists, October 2026.
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