data analysis of the current care model by the King\u2019s Fund in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis analysis estimated that the current system requires 700 million additional appointments each year across GPs, nurses, HCAs, pharmacists and other staff, including 72.8 million more nurse consultations.<\/p>\n
The King\u2019s Fund said increasing these appointments could put \u201cimmense pressure on NHS services that are already stretched to their limits\u201d while adding to the current servicing cost of around \u00a33.1bn.<\/p>\n
The committee of MPs recommended that, instead, the government could make better use of digital providers as a more\u00a0 \u201ccost-effective\u201d and efficient alternative.<\/p>\n
One consultant told the committee that prescribing the medication through trusted online pharmacies, for example, could reduce the load on staff while boosting the number of injection users.<\/p>\n
Among its recommendations to the Department of Health and Social Care, the committee called on ministers to \u201chold a summit on GLP-1 access with a range of providers and healthcare professionals to open a dialogue on how best to improve the rollout\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report stated: \u201cAccess to GLP-1 medication appears increasingly to be determined by ability to pay rather than clinical need.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that obesity already follows stark lines of deprivation and inequality, failing to provide equitable access will entrench and widen those disparities, letting down the patients who need support most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commenting further on the report findings, the committee\u2019s chair Layla Moran said: \u201cPeople can spend their entire lives battling with their weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe say the NHS should provide effective, structured support to beat obesity for all those who seek it,\u201d said Ms Moran, who is Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon. \u201cInstead, those people are repeatedly failed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur report urges the government to make improvements to obesity care a priority, both to improve public health and quality of life, and to save the NHS billions in the long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should be done through a new, nationally available care pathway modelled on how diabetes is tracked and managed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must also be coupled with a change in attitudes, and in language used in policy-making, to properly recognise obesity as the serious health condition that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cA two-tier system has emerged because of limited supply via the NHS, inadvertently deepening health inequalities. This needs to be reviewed and streamlined with input from digital providers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLimited supply via the NHS has formed a two-tier system, deepening health inequalities that can be addressed with a new streamlined system using digital providers.\u201d<\/p>\n
An NHS England spokesperson said: \u201cThe health service is currently testing new ways to accelerate access, including new routes for starting these medicines, to ensure millions more people can benefit \u2013 while also offering a wide range of other support, which has already helped tens of thousands of people achieve a healthier weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
A DHSC spokesperson said: \u201cWe will carefully consider the committee\u2019s recommendations and respond in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObesity is one of the biggest challenges facing our health service, and this government is determined to end the obesity epidemic to help drive the shift from sickness to prevention,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect NHS integrated care boards to be making these drugs available as part of a phased rollout, starting with people in the greatest clinical need, while building the workforce and capacity needed to expand access safely and sustainably.\u201d<\/p>\n
GLP-1 drugs research timeline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Influential MPs have called on NHS England to \u201curgently reassess\u201d what they called its current \u201cunambitious\u201d plan for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-815571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}