Obesity care ‘insufficient’ as patients wait up to five years for care – report

Support for people living with obesity is “insufficient”, experts have said after a new report revealed that some patients are being asked to wait for up to five years for specialist support.

Some specialist overweight and obesity management services are so overstretched that they have closed their waiting lists entirely, according to a new report.

The Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) said that most people who are overweight or living with obesity “do not receive the recommended level of support” from weight management services.

And “unprecedented” demand for new weight loss drugs will likely to put stretched services under even more pressure, according to the organisation, coalition of 60 health charities and medical royal colleges.

In a bulletin to staff, Ms Pritchard wrote: “Obesity, as we all know, is one of the biggest public health issues we face.

“Cost-effective weight loss drugs will be a game-changer, alongside earlier prevention strategies – but without transforming pathways they could overwhelm already-stretched services.”

The Alliance has called for an independent review of obesity services to ensure patients are getting the care that they need after it claimed that the provision of services is “insufficient and unavailable to a significant number of people”.

A new report from the OHA states: “Obesity pharmacotherapy can currently only be accessed on the NHS via specialist overweight and obesity management services; however, the provision of services is not sufficient to meet the number of people who are eligible for treatment.

“Many healthcare professionals who provided testimony to OHA directly state that this has added a significant increase in demand on already overstretched services, with waiting lists now routinely reaching three to five years.

“Some services are also now closed to referrals due to capacity exceeding demand.”

The report adds: “Most people living with overweight or obesity do not receive the recommended level of support from overweight and obesity management services. Provision of all levels of evidence-based services is insufficient and unavailable to a significant number of people.”

The authors continued: “New pharmaceutical treatments have resulted in unprecedented public demand for services and added enormous pressure on already stretched commissioning structures.”

The Obesity Health Alliance has written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, calling for a review of existing NHS obesity services to identify current challenges and present an economic case for expanding access to treatment.

It has also called for the Government to make sure local health bodies are providing the recommended levels of care to avoid a “postcode lottery” of care.

Alfie Slade, government affairs lead at the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “The new weight loss drugs represent a breakthrough in treatment, giving hope to the millions of people struggling to manage their weight, but they also expose the weaknesses in our current obesity services.

“Without urgent government intervention, we will fail to meet the needs of millions of patients, leading to greater health inequalities.”

It comes after leading politicians, including the Prime Minister and Health Secretary, suggested that the roll out of the weight loss jabs could help boost both the nation’s health and the economy.

Sir Keir Starmer said that weight-loss jabs could help boost the economy in Britain by getting people “back into work” while Wes Streeting said that the medication could have “monumental” benefits.

It comes as officials announced plans for new trials to assess the impact of a weight loss treatment on worklessness and the impact obesity has on the NHS.

A five-year trial in Manchester will assess the “real-world effectiveness” of Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide.

Mounjaro, manufactured by Lilly, has been hailed as the “King Kong” of weight-loss jabs after a previous study found people taking the drug, along with support to make changes to exercise and diet, lost an average of 21% of their body weight over a 36-week period.

NHS officials have suggested that the roll out of the drug across England will need to be staggered due to anticipated high levels of demand.

Nearly a quarter of a million people are expected to receive the Mounjaro jab over the next three years, officials have said.

But the OHA said that the phased access plan suggests the rollout will take place over 12 years “due to the cost implications and lack of services in primary care to support access for all who are eligible”.

Mounjaro is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, a family of medications that help manage blood sugar and are used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity.

These medicines have seen a number of supply issues in recent months.

Figures from the Health Survey for England show that in 2022, 29% of adults in England were obese and 64% were deemed to be overweight or living with obesity.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Obesity is one of the biggest preventable killers, it costs the NHS more than £11 billion a year and it also places a significant burden on our economy.

“With obesity-related illness causing people to take more days off sick, obesity drugs can be part of the solution.

“By tackling obesity, we can ease demands on our NHS and help improve Britain’s productivity.

“We’re tackling the obesity crisis head-on – restricting junk food advertising on TV and online, along with banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under the age of 16.”

An NHS England spokesperson said: “With the sheer number of people potentially eligible for these treatments and GP teams already delivering record numbers of appointments, the NHS is working with the Government and industry to develop new kinds of services which mean approved treatments can be rolled out safely, effectively and affordably, without impacting on other people’s care.”