GPs will be offered financial incentives to prescribe weight-loss jabs to speed up the NHS mass rollout.
Eight months after the health service introduced the medication, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that “not all practices prescribe weight-loss drugs”, leading to disparity in access across the country.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has vowed to bring the medication “to the many, not the few”, with new incentives aimed at ensuring equitable patient access.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that “not all practices prescribe weight-loss drugs”, highlighting a significant gap in the programme which commenced last summer with strict eligibility criteria.
When the initiative was first launched, leading GPs had voiced concerns over the potential for increased workload associated with the new prescriptions.
In response, the government has now unveiled fresh financial incentives, backed by £25 million, to encourage family doctors to prescribe these medications and refer eligible patients to dedicated weight management services.
Mr Streeting said: “Weight-loss drugs can be a real game changer for those who need them.
“I’m determined that access should be based on need, not ability to pay.
“Outside the NHS, we’ve seen those who can spare the cash buying privately, and the proliferation of rogue prescribers peddling dangerous unlicensed drugs that are putting patients at risk.”
He added: “This is just part of a wider public health package to help ease the £11 billion burden obesity places on the health service and economy.
“These new incentives for GPs will bring the principle of fairness – which has always underpinned the NHS – to obesity jabs, with the phased rollout to those with highest clinical need first.”
DHSC said that the move, which is being announced as part of a new GP contract, will improve access to weight loss support for patients.
An estimated 2.4 million people are taking weight-loss drugs in the UK, with most of them accessing treatment privately.
NHS England has put in place a phased rollout of Mounjaro over a period of up to 12 years, but current data suggests even patients who are eligible now cannot get the drug.
On the NHS, some 220,000 patients have been prioritised in the the first three years.
The once-weekly injection is initially only available for severely obese people who also suffer from a range of other health problems.
NHS England previously said if all eligible patients – thought to be over three million – turned up for the drug in the first year, and 70 per cent of those were started on treatment, the impact on primary care and general practice would be profound and take-up 18 per cent of GP appointments.
Research published earlier this month suggests women and the middle classes are dominating take-up of private prescriptions for weight-loss injections.
