How to get Ozempic for free on the NHS: Criteria patients must meet to receive the weight loss jab, explained

Millions of unemployed, overweight Brits could receive fat-burning jabs from the NHS in a government bid to get them back to work, it was announced this week.

Health Minister Wes Streeting plans to offer jobless drugs to combat the range of obesity-related diseases that are forcing many to take long-term sick leave.

The idea has the backing of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has insisted it could ease the cost to taxpayers of dealing with excess slack and boost the economy.

However, the drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are already available on the NHS for some patients.

As long as they meet a strict set of criteria, a select number of people can avoid having to pay for expensive private prescriptions of £200 a month.

Currently, patients can only get the weight loss drug Wegovy on the NHS.

Like the better known Ozempic, it contains the drug semaglutide – and studies have shown that it helps patients lose around 15 percent of their body weight.

Ozempic is licensed for the treatment of diabetes and although it can be taken off-label for weight loss, the NHS does not offer this because it needs to reserve supplies for patients who need it most.

Similarly, Mounjaro, which contains the active ingredient tirzepatide, is currently only available on the NHS for diabetics, although this is likely to change soon.

To get Wegovy on the NHS, people must meet one of two criteria.

The first is having a body mass index (BMI) of more than 35, which means someone at the higher end of the obese category is at risk for health problems.

Or they may have a BMI over 30, as well as a weight-related health problem such as high blood pressure or heart disease.

These BMI thresholds shift for people of certain ethnicities based on existing NHS rules for classifying obesity in these groups.

Today it was revealed that Health Secretary Wes Streeting plans to offer free jabs of the drugs to unemployed Britons such as Ozempic’s cousin Wegovy and Mounjaro.

Based on obesity alone, people of Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African or African-Caribbean descent only need a BMI of 32.5 to qualify for Wegovy.

This drops to a BMI of 27.5 or higher for these groups if they have pre-existing obesity-related health conditions, as highlighted above.

In any case, it is not as simple as people who meet these criteria going to the doctor and getting Wegovy.

The drug is only provided by the NHS through its specialist weight management service.

People can only access this service through a referral from, for example, their GP or other qualified healthcare provider, and even then they may have to wait weeks or months for an appointment.

With the drug not technically free, patients will still have to pay the standard NHS prescription charge in England of £9.90.

But this is much cheaper than obtaining the medicine privately.

Sold under the Wegovy and Mounjaro brands, as well as off-label prescriptions of diabetes drug Ozempic, the controversial plan says the injections will combat a range of obesity-related diseases that are forcing Britons out of work.

For some people, the £9.90 will be waived if they meet certain criteria, similar to most other medicines provided by the health service.

These include students aged 18 or younger, people over 60, refugees or asylum seekers and people on benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit.

Some groups who do not pay for prescriptions would not be offered Wegovy or other fat-burning injections at all, such as pregnant women.

Besides Mounjaro being offered for weight loss, there are other plans to shift the eligibility criteria.

Based on studies showing a number of heart health benefits from taking drugs like Wegovy, drug chiefs outlined plans to offer the drug to Britons with a BMI of just 27, meaning overweight and not obese, and existing cardiovascular disease.

This could open the door to millions of Brits being offered the jabs from the NHS as a preventative medicine.

However, the plans have yet to be signed off, with NHS spending watchdogs assessing whether using the drugs in this way is a cost-effective use of taxpayers’ money. A decision is expected next summer.

NHS-backed data source OpenPrescribe shows rising prescriptions for semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for around a quarter of all deaths in Britain, equivalent to 170,000 deaths per year or 480 per day.

All fat sticks currently on the market work by mimicking a natural hormone called GLP-1, which makes people feel full, reduces their appetite and helps people lose weight.

Although they can help people lose up to a quarter of their body weight, the shots, like any drug, are not without potential side effects.

But the news comes despite dire warnings that around 3,000 Britons have become ill after taking Ozempic and Wegovy so far this year.

Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that the jabs had even been linked to 20 deaths in Britain.

Although such cases are rare, other side effects such as nausea, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, stomach pain, headache and dizziness are more common.

Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy work by causing the body to bind to a receptor called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a protein that triggers the release of hormones in the brain that keep the stomach full and telling body to stop eating and avoid cravings

Bizarre symptoms, such as hair loss, have also been reported in some patients.

Even without Labour’s plans to expand prescriptions, the NHS has distributed 1.2 million semaglutide doses in 2023, a huge increase on the just 81,000 distributed in 2019.

It comes as the government confirmed last night that pharmaceutical giant Lilly will pump £279 million into the development of new drugs and treatments in Britain.

The news comes in response to Britain’s widening obesity crisis.

Two in three Britons are overweight or obese, and NHS figures show that people now weigh around a stone more than they did 30 years ago.

Obesity is the second most common cause of preventable death in Britain after smoking and costs the healthcare system £11.4 billion a year.

Mr Streeting has also said that excessive slack is causing people to fall ill for an average of four extra days, with some even being forced to stop work altogether.

Fat-burning shots have become the weight-loss shot of choice for celebrities with famous faces who have admitted to using them included Opra Winfrey, Elon Musk, Sharon Osbourne, Chelsea Handler And Robbie Williams.

Although it is a potential ‘game changer’ in the fight against obesity, there is growing concern about the number of normal weight and underweight patients requiring emergency care after taking the jabs in a bid to become ‘beach body ready’.