With effect from 1st April 2026 due to the ICB decommission the service, the practice will no longer be starting patients on Mounjaro/tirzepatide or other similar drugs purely for weight loss (but consider continuing to prescribe if also needed for diabetes). The ICB has not commissioned any local service to provide patients with Mounjaro irrespective of whether they meet the criteria or not.
‘LMC position statement on Wegovy / Mounjaro Prescribing by Private Providers
The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee has released its position statement regarding Wegovy / Mounjaro Prescribing by Private Providers.
Local Medical Committees were first established under the National Insurance Act 1911 and have been continued to be recognised by subsequent legislation (currently NHS Act 2006) and are the only independent representative body of general practice and have various statutory functions.
We have been contacted by local practices, as their statutory representatives, about requests from private providers asking practices to undertake a review of patient’s notes to check that private providers are safe to prescribe Wegovy or Mounjaro. This, by default, means that the practice takes responsibility for prescribing initiated by other organisations.
Under GMC regulations it is the responsibility of the prescribing clinician to assure themselves that their prescribing is safe – this would include taking an adequate history, examining the patient and are responsible for providing and acting on any appropriate pre-prescribing investigations. Professional medication safety guidelines (NICE) require examination of the patient. This would seem to include objective and accurate weight measurement, at initial assessment and at regular review. At no point is it expected that the provider asks the patient’s NHS GP to do this private work on behalf of other organisations. Private providers must be aware that they cannot assume that a non-response is an agreement that there are no contraindications to prescribing this type of medication.
General Practice is under extreme pressure and practices are not contracted or funded to provide this service for outside providers.’
