Hundreds of thousands of patients in England will be unable to access weight loss jabs via their GP because of a ‘postcode lottery’, damning data has revealed.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting promised millions of obese patients would receive Mounjaro – which helps users lose up to a fifth of their bodyweight – on the NHS over a phased 12 year rollout.
But since the programme began in June last year, thousands have missed out on the life-saving drug due to local NHS services not rolling out a full-GP level services.
Now NHS services in nine areas have restricted access to the jabs for up to 99 per cent of patients, widening gaps in health equality between affluent and poorer areas, Oviva analysis reveals.
According to the NHS’ largest provider of the drugs, patients in Yorkshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Kent, Cheshire, Cambridge and Peterborough, Buckingham, Oxford and Berkshire have faced significant delays to treatment.
Other areas – known as Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) – have already said they are considering further tightening of the prescribing criteria or rationing the treatment.
‘Access to these drugs should be based on clinical need – not your postcode or your bank balance,’ Martin Fidock, managing director of Oviva told the Daily Mail.
‘Weight loss jabs are changing lives. Patients are losing almost 10 per cent of their body weight in six months, reducing their risk of heart disease and diabetes, and getting back into work.
‘But local bodies, squeezed by shrinking budgets, are ignoring the NHS’ own guidelines to shut out patients who should be eligible for treatment.
‘The irony is that the areas with the highest rates of obesity and heart disease now have the least access to treatment.
He added: ‘GPs are turning people away, telling them to come back when their health gets worse – by which point, for many, the damage is already done.’
Experts have long insisted that the phased rollout is essential to ensure those with the greatest need were prioritised.
Nationally, an estimated 3.4million people meet eligibility criteria for the drugs, but the NHS plans to treat 220,000 over three years.
Over two million people in the UK are currently thought to be on the jabs – collectively known as GLP-1s – with the majority of patients accessing them privately.
It comes as ministers have announced that GP surgeries will receive a £3,000 bonus if they prescribe the jabs to their most obese patients.
The deal will see a typical GP practice pocket an additional £3,000 a year for doling out Mounjaro to at least eight in ten eligible people on its list.
Only 1 per cent of eligible patients in some areas in England are able to access Mounjaro on the NHS
Officials hope the incentive will encourage GPs to accelerate the rollout of the drug, given that not all practices that have been given the authority to do so are prescribing the drug, according to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘I’m determined that access should be based on need, not ability to pay.
‘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.’
But experts say this will do little to make the drug more accessible to those who need it most.
‘These new incentives are about encouraging GPs to refer and prescribe to more patients – but they don’t change who actually qualifies for treatment,’ Mr Fidock said.
‘Eligibility is still being set locally by NHS boards, and in many areas the criteria have become much stricter.
‘Until we address those restrictions, these incentives won’t translate into real, meaningful access for the people who need it most.’
A typical GP practices of 6,000 patients will have fewer than 20 patients who qualify for the drug – with annual funding expected to cover only a fraction of that number.
It is currently offered on the health service to severely obese people with a body mass index over 40 who also have complicating illnesses such as high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnoea, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.
