GPs set to offer weight-loss injection in effort to reduce obesity

GPs in England could start to offer weight-loss injections to some patients to reduce obesity-related illnesses and the resultant pressure on NHS services.

The jab, named Wegovy, was approved for NHS use following research which suggested users could shed over 10 per cent of their body weight.

The drug reduces appetite, so that users feel full and eat less.

Similar injections, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic, which work in a similar way but are designed to treat diabetes, have not yet been approved for NHS use specifically for weight loss.

NHS drugs watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, says patients can access Wegovy for a maximum of two years via a specialist weight-management service.

These services are mostly hospital based, meaning only around 35,000 have access, but the government have said tens of thousands more could be eligible, although the UK has no supply of the drug yet.

The Royal College of GPs’ chairwoman Professor Kamila Hawthorne, welcomed the move but said there would need to be “sufficient resource and funding to account for the increased workload”.

She added that there also needs to be enough quantities of the drug available “so as not to raise patients’ expectations, as there may be a significant number of people who would benefit from it.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said “Pharmaceutical treatments offer a new way of helping people with obesity gain a healthier weight and this new pilot will help determine if these medicines can be used safely and effectively in non-hospital settings as well as a range of other interventions we have in place.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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