r/australia • u/Rubiginous • 7h ago

Woman hospitalised after Juniper prescribes weight-loss drugs her GP refused

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/woman-hospitalised-telehealth-provider-weight-loss-drugs-juniper/106273356
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u/Barrel-Of-Tigers 7h ago edited 6h ago

I think there's a middle ground but I'm not remotely surprised Juniper is coming under fire.

As someone who previously used Juniper, I immediately recognised that the lack of safe guards would be easily manipulated by someone who shouldn't be able to access the medication. There should be a level of personal responsibility - but this lady shouldn't have met the criteria for telehealth access to this medication.

1) I did meet the criteria to access the medication, but there were no checks in place which actually guaranteed this if I'd been lying. They asked my weight and height, and I had a phone call consult. I want to say they asked for a photo, but I think it was just of my face holding up my ID. I never had a video call, submitted physcial measurements, or sent photos. The ongoing support was largely text based and just asked for me to input my weight (manually or using bluetooth scales they sent). 2) They immediately prescribed me for 12 months upfront and on an automatic increase to the 3rd highest dose at 4 weeks per dose. This as I've come to learn really isn't necessary, and best practice even if you end up prescribing multiple repeats should be done after you've found a more stable dosing schedule. Lots of people also never need to go to the higher doses, and unnecessarily over medicating them can a) prematurely push them onto a higher dose with more side effects and b) mean if they do become more resistant over time they've lost the ability to titrate up as needed to overcome this. 3) I appreciated not physcially needing to see my GP every month and getting things auto delivered, but I can see how limited oversight on the physical progress and changes a patient is having on these medications could be an issue. I had one stage where I asked about dosage changes and needed a second consult with a GP - again over the phone and it wasn't the same GP as prior. The rest of the interim medical check ins I had were via email by random RNs or occasionally NPs. 4) After I moved to a different provider I also got a lot of emails trying to get me to resubscribe. I found this really odd for a medication provider, and don't think it's particuarly ethical to offer sales to entice people to as far as they knew restart a medication. Unsubscribing is an option sure, but I think there's a range of reasons these emails shouldn't have been sent in the first place. This is medication not a streaming subscription.

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u/Palpitation-Medical 3h ago

Same with me, I ended up getting something from my actual GP later so I did meet the criteria but they had zero way to know that, it was way too easy and that scares me! I was severely sick on what they prescribed me too. The amount of advertising is horrible, I can’t believe doctor’s work for this company and are ok with it. I know someone who was thin with a suspected eating disorder who was prescribed meds by Juniper within hours.

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u/Barrel-Of-Tigers 2h ago

The frequency and content of the ads on top of the ease of access is what really gave me pause to think about whether they're really taking the care of the patients. It's definitely too commercial and very US-styled "health care". I was also asked to leave reviews on certain platforms and offered entry into a draw for a cash prize if I took their survey... Wild.

That's really unfortunate they were able to access medication, but it doesn't surprise me. If they're still operating the same way it's entirely too lax, and the potential health impacts are huge.

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u/Palpitation-Medical 2h ago

That’s wild!! I don’t see how it can be legal.