MPs Say NHS Weight-Loss Jab Rollout Is Unambitious, Calling for Hundreds of Thousands More Patients

A cross-party group of MPs has told the government that its plan for NHS weight-loss injections is far too modest. The Commons Health Committee says the current target of giving 220,000 people free Mounjaro on prescription in 2028 is a "woefully small number" and "unambitious", and it wants hundreds of thousands more patients to have access in England.

The committee's arithmetic is simple. About 2.8 million people are eligible for the drug, so 220,000 amounts to roughly 6% of them. MPs see that gap as a main reason more than a million people have been paying privately for weight-loss injections, including Mounjaro and Wegovy. They warn that a two-tier system is emerging, in which only the wealthy get good access to a medication that curbs appetite.

Cost is what holds the rollout back. The NHS is working on a 12-year timetable for Mounjaro, though that plan is under review. It is estimated that giving the drug immediately to all 2.8 million eligible people would cost the NHS £15.2 billion over five years.

Part of that bill comes from the NHS leaning heavily on GPs to oversee prescribing and monitoring. The MPs say the health service should learn from private providers, which often use digital platforms to handle some of that work. In their view, streamlining patient support could bring the cost down. They also argue that spending makes financial sense given what obesity costs the wider economy, estimated at around £75 billion a year.

Wegovy, the other weight-loss injection, is available on the NHS, but only through specialist weight management services.

The committee also turned to the black market. It says the lack of NHS availability has pushed people to buy unlicensed products online. It is calling for a public awareness campaign on the dangers and for a review of how online advertising of these drugs could be better regulated.

The criticism extends beyond the injections. MPs described the wider system of weight-loss services as poorly designed and under-resourced, and they want better access to diet and lifestyle courses and to bariatric surgery. The committee's Moran said obesity should be treated as a serious health condition, as diabetes is. "People can spend their entire lives battling with their weight," she said, arguing that the NHS should offer effective, structured support to everyone who seeks it, and that instead those people are repeatedly failed.

Jack Doughty of the Obesity Health Alliance echoed the point, saying people living with obesity were being "let down by a fragmented and overstretched treatment system". He described existing services, from behavioural support to medication and surgery, as patchy and unequal.

NHS England said it is looking at ways to speed up the rollout of weight-loss drugs, but that it is currently "rightly prioritising" them for people with the most severe and complex needs. The review of the 12-year timetable is the next thing to watch, and the committee's cost argument will be part of that debate.