Thousands in England unable to access weight loss jabs via GP, figures reveal | NHS

Thousands of patients in England are unable to access weight loss jab via their general practitioner, reveal the figures, as doctors warn that the deployment of the NHS is “not suitable for the objective”.

Family doctors obtained the green light to prescribe the drugs for the first time in June. About 220,000 people with a “greater need” were to receive Mounjaro, also known as shooting and manufactured by Eli Lilly, on the NHS in the next three years.

But two months later, less than half (18 out of 42) of the commissioning bodies across England confirmed that they had started to prescribe the medication. The criticisms said that the figures showed that there was now a “postal code lottery” access to weight loss strokes on the NHS.

The NHS in England had implemented a gradual deployment of the medication over a period of up to 12 years, but the data suggest that even patients who are eligible cannot obtain the drug. Most Mounjaro patients – about nine out of 10 – currently paying it in private.

According to requests for freedom of information made by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), few integrated care commissions (ICB) have received sufficient NHS liquidity for patients eligible for weight loss drugs. Nine only had the necessary funding to cover at least 70% of their eligible patients, the BMJ reported.

Ellen Welch, co -chair of the UK doctors’, said: “These figures confirm the fear that deployment will not be adapted to use. There is a huge gap between national messaging and patients are really delivered to the local level. ”

Four ICBs told BMJ that the NHS funding that they had received covered only 25% or less from their eligible patients, Coventry and Warwickshire rushing on the worst. This ICB said that it had received funding to cover only 376 patients, despite the identification of 1,795 patients eligible during the first year of deployment.

The deployment began on June 23. Patients eligible for the first year include those with a body mass index (BMI) over 40 years and other comfortable diseases such as high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Jonathan Hazlehurst, endocrinologist consultant and academic clinical teacher at the University of Birmingham, said that the deployment was “considerably sub-financial”.

“It clearly makes distress and uncertainty in patients and primary care and covers the risk of inequity in access to treatment, and this is my greatest concern,” he said. “The NHS in England is talking about treating 220,000 patients in the first three years, but we can see that the initial funding of the year, the first clearly only covers 10% of this.”

Professor Nicola Heslehurst, the president of the Association for the Obesity Study, said that the figures have shown that there was a “postal lottery” access to obesity care.

The figures emerged just a few days after Wes Streting is committed to doing more to prevent people from being “assessed” from accessing weight loss. The Secretary of Health said he wanted more people to get them in the NHS after the Mounjaro manufacturer said he was putting prices in the private sector. Eli Lilly said in August that he was setting up the price of the drug list up to 170%.

The NHS England said it “fully maintained” the gradual deployment of Mounjaro for eligible patients and had financed commissioning organizations in March.

The Ministry of Health and Social Coins said it expected that the commissioning organizations put the drug available in the context of progressive deployment “so that those who need to access it.”