GPs to get £3,000 bonus to maximise weight loss drug prescriptions

GPs in England are to be paid £3,000 a year bonuses to prescribe patients weight loss drugs.

The government is adding the incentive payments to the GP contract starting in April.

GPs will also get extra money – worth about £1,000 a year - for referring patients on to weight loss programmes.

Ministers said it was important that patients who could benefit from weight loss support were able to access it.

But obesity experts warned the scheme would have limited impact because the drugs were still being tightly-restricted on the NHS – and this move would do nothing to widen eligibility.

The incentive payments will only apply to Mounjaro.

The other new generation weight loss drug available on the NHS – Wegovy – is not prescribed by GPs but instead is given by specialist NHS weight loss services.

More than 1 million people are estimated to be using weight loss drugs, given as injections, with nine in 10 paying for them privately.

Health Secretary Wes 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.

"Investing in general practice will help bring this modern medicine to the many, not just the few, and help shift the focus of the NHS from treatment to prevention."

Incentive payments are a normal part of the GP contract and in the past have been paid for a variety of other things to improve everything from dementia care to boosting vaccination rates and to prescribe statins to lower the risk of heart disease.

This will be the first time weight loss drugs have been made part of the contract with the £3,000 available for prescribing the maximum number of eligible patients Mounjaro.

The drug only started being prescribed by GPs during this financial year – and access has been restricted to those severely obese with both a BMI of over 40 and certain health conditions.

Next year that will be widened to those with a BMI of over 35 with the expectation that by 2028, 220,000 patients will be on Mounjaro provided by the NHS. The eligibility thresholds are lower for certain ethnic groups.

However, rollout so far has been reported to be patchy with not all GPs currently prescribing them as much as expected.

Katharine Jenner, director of Obesity Health Alliance, said the incentives were a welcome step.

But she added: "This doesn't mean weight loss drugs will suddenly be available to everyone who wants them.

"NHS access will remain very limited and focused on those with the greatest clinical need, and these treatments are most effective when combined with sustained support."

And she added: "If we're serious about moving from sickness to prevention, expanded treatment must go alongside stronger action to improve the food environment and prevent obesity in the first place."

Dr Katie Bramall, of the British Medical Association, said: "While the headlines promise much, in reality there will be no change to NHS England's eligibility criteria for patients to access injectable weight‑loss medication on the NHS.

"These proposals will do nothing over the next year to address the divide between those able to pay and those left waiting unable to afford private self-funded treatments"

And Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, of the Royal College of GPs, added: "GPs do not withhold treatment or prescribe based on financial incentives. Decisions are guided by clinical judgement and what is safest and most appropriate for individual patients.

"Widening the roll-out of these medications in general practice could end up increasing workload in a way that may not be sustainable and risk raising unrealistic expectations among patients who may not be eligible or for whom these medicines are not suitable."