National evaluation of weight medication access (NEWA)

A third of UK adults live with obesity, which can affect health and wellbeing. Tirzepatide (also known as Mounjaro) is a new weight management drug approved for use in the UK.

These medications are usually given in specialist weight management services run in hospitals, but there are not enough of these services across the country for everyone who needs one.

NHS England is testing out new ways of delivering weight management medication and support outside of hospitals. This includes prescribing through GP practices supported by hospital weight management services, community services, or online weight management services.

It’s important that we understand how well these new services work and what people think of them. This is so the NHS can provide weight management that best meet the needs of all people in England.

Project aims

We will survey and talk to people from different backgrounds who have used the new services. We will ask about their experiences including the quality of the support they received alongside Tirzepatide treatment, and their ideas on how things could be improved.

We will also speak to people who dropped out of the services to understand what could have been improved.

We will measure people’s weight, quality of life and other changes to their daily life, as well as any side-effects from Tirzepatide. This will help us understand how well each service works for people.

We will also survey and interview health professionals to understand their views and experiences of service delivery and how services could be improved. We will compare the costs of running each type of service.

We will then discuss what we have learnt in workshops with patient and public representatives, researchers, and health professionals.

What we hope to achieve

We will write a report with our participants for NHS England. This will highlight how out-of- hospital weight management services should be designed to improve the chances that people from all backgrounds can benefit from weight management medication. We hope this will help the wider roll-out of these services and ensure everyone who needs to can benefit.

Dr Karen Coulman co-leads this project with Professor Jonathan Pinkney from the University of Plymouth.