Obesity: Drugs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which ICBs have chosen not to allow GPs to prescribe weight loss injections.
Answered by Mrs Sharon Hodgson
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are legally required to make funding available for medicines recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro, for the management of obesity through primary care in line with NICE guidance and the NICE Funding Variation. Open Prescribing data reports that tirzepatide is being prescribed in primary care in every ICB in England.
Not all primary care prescribing will necessarily take place in general practice. The local pathways for assessment, prescribing and ongoing management of tirzepatide may differ between areas depending on local service models and workforce arrangements. In some areas, prescribing may be undertaken through specialist or community-based weight management services operating on an outreach basis into primary care, while in others prescribing may take place within general practice.
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