Pharmacies Should Run Baselines Before Prescribing

The pharmacy counter is an underused point in preventive medicine, and in the UK it is about to get prescribing rights. Pharmacists newly registering from 2026 qualify as independent prescribers. Online pharmacies already dispense GLP-1s at scale, many of them without a blood test. Pharmacies prescribing is fine. Prescribing without baseline data is guessing at scale. A reasonable baseline before a GLP-1 is not complicated: fasting insulin, HbA1c, CRP, lipids, liver and kidney function, thyroid, sex hormones, and body composition by DEXA. In many online models none of that is taken before the first script goes out. A 2019 study of US national health data found that only about 12% of adults had blood sugar, triglycerides, HDL, blood pressure and waist size all in a healthy range. So many of the people starting these drugs are already metabolically unwell, they start on a fixed dose, nothing is measured before or during, and the weight often comes back after stopping. Labs can show changes before weight does, and a wearable can flag something between blood draws. Both only help if you know where the person started. This doesn't need a new building. The pharmacy is already there and already sees these patients. It just does not take the baseline before the first prescription. What would it take for a pharmacy to run a baseline before the first script?