So little money has been set aside by the NHS for the rollout of the Mounjaro weight-loss jab in GP surgeries that as few as one in five people with life-threatening obesity is likely to get treatment, new research shows.
The NHS estimates that around 220,000 people living with obesity will be eligible for treatment through their GP over the next three years.
But Freedom of Information requests by the British Medical Journal revealed that funding from NHS England has fallen well short of what is needed for the rollout.
Just nine out of 40 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England said they had enough funding to treat the 70% of eligible patients who are expected to come forward.
Four ICBs – which plan health services in local areas – said NHS funding covered just 25% or fewer of their eligible patients.
Coventry and Warwickshire ICB said funding would only stretch to treat 21% of its patients.
The findings confirm an investigation by Sky News earlier this summer that access to Mounjaro is a postcode lottery for people living with obesity.
Ellen Welch, Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) co-chair, told the BMJ: “These figures confirm the fear that the rollout is not fit for purpose.
“There is a huge discrepancy between national messaging and what patients are actually being delivered on a local level.”
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Five ICBs admitted they are already considering further tightening the prescribing criteria or rationing the treatment beyond the plan agreed by the NHS.
Any change would effectively move the goalposts for people who thought they qualified for NHS treatment.
Birmingham and Solihull ICB received funding to cover just 52% of its eligible patients. It admitted: “Difficult decisions are having to be made to ensure money is spent in the most effective and efficient way possible and for the greatest patient benefit.”
Dr Jonathan Hazlehurst, an obesity specialist and researcher at the University of Birmingham, said NHS England has only provided funding for just over 22,000 patients in the first year of the rollout.
“It shows that there’s a lack of political will to fund this adequately,” he told Sky News.
“NHS England says that obesity costs the NHS £11.4bn per annum as a pure NHS cost.
“Yet we can’t even afford to properly fund the rollout of a life-changing drug in year one. That just doesn’t make any sense.”
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An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is fully supporting the phased rollout of tirzepatide for eligible patients, having issued guidance in line with the NICE guidance, and provided funding to local ICBs to support patient care in March 2025.
“These represent brand-new services in primary care that are being established and scaled up over time, starting with those who are in the most need – and in the meantime, eligible patients can get weight loss support from a range of other services, including the NHS Digital Weight Management programme.”
