GP’s To Be Offered Bonuses For Prescribing Weight Loss Jabs

GP’s in England are to be paid a bounus of £3,000 a year to prescribe weight loss jabs to patients.

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

The doctors will also be able to get extra money, about £1,000 a year, for referring patients on to weight loss programmes.

BBC reports: 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.

This drug started being available on the NHS in 2025 but not all GPs are yet prescribing it as often as expected.

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.