Doctors have raised concerns about the amount of money being paid for overseeing patients in pilot trials of the weight loss drug Wegovy (semaglutide), which they say far exceeds what would normally be spent on providing similar services.
Documents leaked to The BMJ show that primary care networks will be reimbursed £1109 for each patient who takes part in the pilot, if general practitioners “identify patients and initiate prescribing.” If GPs refer a patient to a specialist weight management service to receive Wegovy, they will get £663, in the “shared care model,” the documents show. This is 10 times the amount that commissioners pay for weight loss management services—the kind that will be offered as wraparound care—which is around £100 a patient, public health specialists have said.
One public health doctor told The BMJ that obesity services had been crying out for this type of financial support for years and questioned …