{"id":818589,"date":"2026-10-30T11:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818589\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:10:15","slug":"report-finds-substantial-variation-in-health-board-prescribing-of-glp-1-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818589\/","title":{"rendered":"Report finds \u2018substantial variation\u2019 in health board prescribing of GLP-1 drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report has highlighted \u201csubstantial geographical variation\u201d in prescribing of drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro on the NHS in Scotland.<\/p>\n

The first study of its kind by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) found that while there had been \u201cstrong growth in NHS prescribing\u201d of such drugs, there were differences between health boards which could not fully be explained by patient need.<\/p>\n

GLP-1 and GIP\/GLP-1 drugs \u2013 such as Ozempic and Mounjaro \u2013 were one of the types of medications considered in the study, which looked at how widely drugs were prescribed to patients after being approved for NHS use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC).<\/p>\n

Across all the medicines looked at, the research found \u201cthere was substantial variation in the pace and scale of recorded prescribing between NHS boards\u201d.<\/p>\n

It recommended \u201ca more co-ordinated approach to implementation across NHS Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n

To achieve this, the ABPI put forward seven priority areas for action, saying NHS Scotland bosses and the Scottish Government should \u201clead the work\u201d on implementing these with NHS boards and other parties.<\/p>\n

While GLP-1 medications have been approved for NHS use for weight loss in eligible patients and for treating inadequately controlled type 2 diabetes, the report pointed out that most NHS prescriptions come under the latter category<\/p>\n

Use of such drugs to help tackle obesity has \u201cremained substantially more limited than use for type 2 diabetes\u201d, it noted, with 71% of Scottish respondents taking weight-loss medication in the last 12 months obtaining it privately, rather than on the NHS.<\/p>\n

As such it stressed the findings of the report \u201cshould not be interpreted as evidence of widespread NHS adoption for obesity\u201d, adding the data was \u201clikely to predominantly reflect prescribing for type 2 diabetes\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, for NHS prescribing, the study found that NHS Western Isles had the highest three-month average population-standardised level of activity \u2013 10 times higher than in Shetland, which had the lowest.<\/p>\n

The report went on to note that the two areas with the highest prescribing rates, Western Isles and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, were \u201csubstantially\u201d different in terms of recorded population need.<\/p>\n

It pointed out that Greater Glasgow and Clyde had \u201cthe second-lowest prevalence of overweight and obesity across NHS boards\u201d, while the Western Isles had the second-highest prevalence.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u201cShetland recorded the lowest per capita prescribing despite relatively high overweight and obesity prevalence\u201d, the report added.<\/p>\n

Victoria Jordan, ABPI executive director of patient access, said that while \u201cScotland has a strong and respected system for assessing new medicines\u201d, the report showed \u201cthat the use of some accepted medicines can vary widely between NHS boards and that differences in patient need do not fully explain this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Jordan said: \u201cWhile the data we have does not tell us everything, it does show we need to look more closely at this issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen avoidable barriers slow things down, patients can wait longer than they should for medicines already judged effective and good value.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to plan and work together across government, the NHS, clinicians, patients, academia and industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat way, we can help make sure national SMC decisions have benefit to patients, wherever they live.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: \u201cWe will carefully consider the findings of this report and have been clear our reforms to NHS boards are intended to improve equity of access to services and reduce the unwarranted variation and bureaucratic barriers we currently have in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report has highlighted \u201csubstantial geographical variation\u201d in prescribing of drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-818589","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\/818589","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=818589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}