Weight Loss Medications

A great deal has been circulated in the media regarding weight loss injections over the past year, months and weeks. However much of it is misleading and there is no local service commissioned or available in Havering.

The current agreement by NICE is that it can only be prescribed by a specialist weight management (tier 3) service (i.e. specialist service only).  There is no commissioned Tier 3 Weight Management Service for Havering. Our Local NHS is working to set up a service which GPs will then be able to refer to:

Media reports from June 2025 advising that it will be available from General Practice are misleading.

1. NHS England is closing & neither NHS England nor our local North-East-London Integrated Care Board has commissioned any such service from General Practice in Havering or any other provider.
2. Media reports do confirm, correctly, that
   • it will not be available from GP practices in every area, and that currently applies to Havering.
   • It can only provided with a “wrap-around” care – including regular check-ups, support with exercising and advice on eating healthily, which is not available locally currently.
   • That patients will only eligible, when a service is commissioned, if the strict criteria are met:
     • BMI must be above 40 (or 37.5 if from an ethnic minority background). You can check your BMI here if you know your height and weight.
     • As well as a BMI over 40, you must have a confirmed diagnosis of at least four out of the following five health conditions:
       – Hypertension (high blood pressure) needing medication
       – Sleep apnoea (confirmed at a sleep clinic)
       – Type 2 diabetes
       – Cardiovascular disease (heart disease, vascular disease or stroke)
       – Hypercholesterolaemia (high cholesterol)
     • IE If you are not diabetic you must have ALL the other diagnoses and reach the BMI criteria.

The same medications are already licensed and being prescribed by WLMC for the treatment of adults with insufficiently controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus as an adjunct to diet and exercise.

If you are under a private service, or a non-local service which recommends weight loss injections, then the responsibility to prescribe this medications will sit with that service provider and we are not able to enter into shared care agreements with them.

We do hope and anticipate there will be a locally commissioned and provided comprehensive service in the not too distant future. Our Local NHS is working to set up a service which GPs will then be able to refer to.. To contact our local NHS commissioner, North-East-London Integrated Care Board, regarding this commissioning and service gap you can email Nelondonicb.complaints@nhs.net