Weight Loss Injections
We are receiving multiple requests for patients who are hoping to receive weight loss injections. There are very strict criteria to receive these on the NHS.
GPs can currently only prescribe these for weight loss to patients who have a body mass index (BMI, a measure of your weight against your height) of 40 or more, and also have 4 of the following medical conditions:
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Dyslipidaemia (high cholesterol)
- Cardiovascular disease (stroke, heart attack, angina, peripheral vascular disease)
- Obstructive sleep apnoea
- Type 2 diabetes
If you do not have a BMI of 40+ and 4 of the conditions listed above, you will not be able to receive an NHS prescription for weight loss injections, and we would ask you not to contact us about it at this time. At some point next year, patients with a BMI of 35-39.9 will also qualify but they will still need to have been diagnosed with 4 of the above conditions.
We will be contacting those patients who are eligible in due course. If you do think that you may qualify, please wait for us to get in touch and please be aware we will only be authorised to prescribe the medication if you have already completed another weight loss programme (such as the NHS Digital Weight Management Service or the Diabetes Prevention Programme).
There are other things that you can do to help with your weight. We would strongly recommend that weight is addressed through a healthy diet and, where possible, increasing physical activity. Most patients who contact us for help have tried several diets and activity boosting drives previously, and it can be frustrating when these don’t succeed.
There is help available through the NHS website, the NHS weight loss app is particularly good. Information can be found here:
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/lose-weight/
The page that offers advice regarding what to eat at mealtimes when trying to lose weight is very useful:
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/lose-weight/healthy-eating-when-trying-to-lose-weight/