An £8 million government grant will make specialist weight management services available to Haverhill residents for the first time, after NHS Norfolk and Suffolk won the funding on 29 June. The investment aims to slash waiting times for the Weight Management and Complex Obesity Service, which has been unavailable locally. Ed Garratt OBE, Chief Executive of the Integrated Care Board, called the award “a major vote of confidence from government in our local health and care system”.
The three-year programme will create up to 20 new community hubs in areas of deprivation and close to public transport, boosting capacity by 27 per cent. Officials expect the number of people who can access support and treatment across the region to climb from 67,155 to 85,270, with an extra 4,500 patients receiving obesity management medications. Haverhill Family Practice currently tells patients that its GPs cannot prescribe drugs such as Mounjaro outside the specialist pathway, and that the service was “not currently operating at present” as recently as May.
The single point of access for the weight management service is overseen by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust. Under the expanded programme, adults with the highest clinical need will be proactively identified and their practices invited to refer them. The grant is part of the national Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme, which distributes up to £50 million from government and up to £35 million from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company across 12 health boards.
Across Norfolk, Suffolk and north east Essex, around 619,000 people live with overweight or obesity and could benefit from the service. The programme runs until March 2029 and is designed to support the NHS 10 Year Health Plan’s shift from sickness to prevention.
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