How to get Ozempic for free on the NHS: criteria patients must meet to receive the weight loss injection explained

Millions of overweight unemployed Brits could be offered fat-trimming jobs on the NHS in a government campaign to get them back to work, it was announced this week.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting is planning to offer medication to the unemployed to combat the host of obesity-related illnesses that force many to take long-term sick leave.

The idea has the support of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who insisted it could help alleviate the costs to the taxpayer of treating excessive sagging and boost the economy.

However, medicines including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are already available on the NHS for some patients.

As long as they meet a strict set of criteria, a select few can avoid paying expensive private prescriptions of £200 a month.

Millions of obese, unemployed Brits could receive fat-busting injections in government plan to get them back to work

Patients can currently only get the weight loss drug Wegovy on the NHS.

Like the more famous Ozempic, it contains the drug semaglutide – and studies have shown that it helps patients lose around 15% of their body weight.

Ozempic is licensed for diabetes treatment, and although it can be taken off-label for weight loss, the NHS does not provide this as it must reserve supplies for patients who need it most.

Similarly, Mounjaro, which contains the active ingredient tirzepatide, is also currently only available on the NHS for diabetics, although this is likely to change soon.

To get Wegovy on the NHS, people must meet one of two criteria.

The first is having a body mass index (BMI) greater than 35, which means a person is at the upper limit of obesity and risk of health problems.

Or they may have a BMI over 30, as well as a weight-related health problem, such as high blood pressure or heart disease.

These BMI thresholds change for people of certain ethnicities based on existing NHS rules for classifying obesity in these groups.

It was revealed today that Health Secretary Wes Streeting is planning to offer unemployed Brits free doses of drugs such as Wegovy, a cousin of Ozempic, and Mounjaro

People of Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African or Afro-Caribbean origin only need a BMI of 32.5 to be eligible for Wegovy for obesity reasons only.

This drops to a BMI of 27.5 or higher for these groups if they have pre-existing health conditions related to obesity, as highlighted above.

In any case, it’s not as simple as people who meet these criteria going to their family doctor and getting Wegovy.

The medicine is only distributed by the NHS through its specialist weight management service.

People can only access this service through a referral from their family doctor or other qualified healthcare professional, and may even have to wait weeks or months for an appointment.

Once these hurdles are passed, the medicine is not technically free, patients will still need to pay the standard NHS prescription fee in England of £9.90.

But this is much cheaper than purchasing the medicine privately.

Sold under the brands Wegovy and Mounjaro, as well as off-label prescriptions for the diabetes drug Ozempic, the controversial plan is for the injections to combat a range of obesity-related illnesses that force Britons out of work.

Some people will be exempt from the £9.90 fee if they meet certain criteria, similar to most other medicines provided by the health service.

These include students aged 18 and under, over 60s, refugees or asylum seekers, and people receiving benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit.

First, some groups that do not pay for prescriptions would not receive Wegovy or other fat-eliminating injections, such as pregnant women, for example.

In addition to Mounjaro being offered for weight loss, there were other plans to change the eligibility criteria.

Based on studies showing a range of heart health benefits from taking drugs like Wegovy, pharmaceutical bosses have outlined plans to offer the medicine to Brits with a BMI of just 27, meaning overweight, not obese, and existing cardiovascular diseases.

This could open the door for millions of other Britons to be offered vaccines on the NHS as a preventative medicine.

However, the plans have not yet been approved and NHS spending watchdogs need to assess whether using the medicines in this way is a cost-effective use of taxpayer funds, with a decision expected next summer.

Data source backed by NHS OpenPrescribe shows rising prescriptions for semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for around a quarter of all deaths in the UK, the equivalent of 170,000 deaths a year or 480 a day.

All fat injections currently on the market work by mimicking a natural hormone called GLP-1, which makes people feel full, reducing appetite and helping people lose weight.

Although they can help people lose up to a quarter of their body weight, vaccines, like any medicine, have potential side effects.

But the news comes despite dire warnings that around 3,000 Brits have fallen ill this year after taking Ozempic and Wegovy.

Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that vaccines had been linked to 20 deaths in Britain.

Although such cases are rare, other side effects such as nausea, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, stomach pain, headaches and dizziness are more common.

Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy work by stimulating the body to bind to a receptor called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a protein that triggers the release of hormones in the brain that keep the stomach full and tell the body to stop eating. eat and avoid cravings

Bizarre symptoms such as hair loss have also been reported in some patients.

Even without Labor plans to expand prescriptions, the NHS has distributed 1.2 million doses of semaglutide in 2023, a massive increase on the mere 81,000 distributed in 2019.

It turns out that the government confirmed last night that pharmaceutical giant Lilly will invest £279 million in developing new medicines and treatments in the UK.

The news comes in response to Britain’s growing obesity crisis.

Two in three Brits are classed as overweight or obese and NHS figures show that people now weigh around a stone over 30 years ago.

Obesity is the second most common cause of preventable death after smoking in the UK and costs the health service £11.4 billion a year.

Streeting also said that excess flab causes people to take, on average, four extra days of sick leave, while some are even forced to stop working altogether.

Fat loss scams have become the weight loss scams of choice for celebrities with famous faces who who admitted to using them including Oprah oprah, Elon Musk, Sharon Osbourne, Chelsea Handler and Robbie Williams.

While it is a potential “game-changer” in the battle against obesity, there has been growing concern about the number of normal-weight and underweight patients requiring emergency care after receiving vaccines in an attempt to become “health-ready.” to the beach.”