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GPs are to be incentivised to prescribe weight loss drugs to suitable people as part of the 2026/27 Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), a voluntary annual reward and incentive programme for GP practices. 

Two new QOF indicators will encourage GPs to monitor the provision of care for people with obesity, offer ‘evidence-based advice’, refer people to weight management programmes, and prescribe NHS-approved weight-loss drugs where appropriate.  

A £3,000 payment is available to GPs as part of a ring-fenced funding of £25 million. 

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "Weight loss drugs can be a real game-changer for those who need them. I'm determined that access should be based on need, not ability to pay.

"Outside the NHS, we've seen those who can spare the cash buying privately, and the proliferation of rogue prescribers peddling dangerous unlicensed drugs that are putting patients at risk.

"Investing in general practice will help bring this modern medicine to the many, not just the few, and help shift the focus of the NHS from treatment to prevention."

NPA chief executive, Henry Gregg, said the Government should make better use of pharmacies “rather than relying on overstretched GPs”. He said the NHS roll-out of weight loss treatments remained "very slow", and "only a handful of patients are being treated. In some parts of the country, it has hardly begun at all.”