DAUK co-chair Dr Ellen Welch provided commentary in the national media on the impact on GPs of the rollout of weight-loss treatment.
Dr Welch, a GP in the north west of England, was featured in national and regional news outlets and websites discussing Mounjaro – also known as tirzepatide.
Her comments, initially in the BMJ, drew attention to the postcode lottery of access and the pressure placed on GPs.
Dr Welch was responding figures obtained by the BMJ in a freedom of information request.
Mounjaro
It found that fewer than half of England has access to Mounjaro through general practices.
Some 18 of 42 commissioning bodies across the country confirmed they had started prescribing tirzepatide in line with NHS England’s primary care roll-out plan.
And that nine ICBs confirmed they had been allocated enough NHS funding to cover at least 70% of their eligible patients.
Dr Welch said: “These figures confirm the fear that the roll-out is not fit for purpose. There is a huge discrepancy between national messaging and what patients are actually being delivered on a local level.
Weight-loss treatment
“As a GP I get several queries a week from patients asking for GLP-1 RAs [glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists] to be prescribed for weight loss, and very few meet the strict NHS prescribing criteria.”
The manufacturer of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly, has said it will increase the price of the drug by as much as 170%.
Dr Welch told the BMJ this was ‘sure to lead many more patients to the door of their GP surgeries, where they will sadly be met with an inadequate service, even if they do meet the narrow criteria’.
Her comments have been widely reported including by Sky News , The Guardian, The Sun, The Mirror, and The Independent.
DAUK committee members are all volunteers and speak to the media about issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.
