Prescribing & Medicines Management
Issue no 3, p4
May/June 2003

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Pharmacists to prescribe weight loss drug under patient group direction

Trained community pharmacists in the UK could soon be prescribing the anti-obesity drug orlistat under a patient group direction, published last month.

The template was being made available to primary care trusts as well as other commissioning bodies (including individual pharmacists) from May, in the hope that PCTs will then adapt if for use to suit local conditions and needs.

The patient group direction was developed by a number of experts, and is backed by the National Obesity Forum.

NOF chairman Dr Ian Campbell, a GP in Nottingham, said: "Community pharmacists are ideally placed to help fight the battle against obesity." Pharmacists can offer a wide range of weight management services, which would support work being carried out in GP surgeries to address the targets in the NSFs for coronary heart disease and diabetes.

He said that community pharmacists wishing to establish weight management services could offer in-pharmacy blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol testing, as well as weight and body mass index calculation and advice on healthy eating and exercise.

Obesity is estimated to cost upwards of £2.5 billion a year, according to the National Audit Office. Half of the UK population is currently overweight, and one in five people is obese.

Hertfordshire pharmacist Graham Phillips, who chaired the advisory committee that wrote the patient group direction, said the template contained all the information required for a commissioning body to put in place a patient group direction for orlistat.

He added: "As well as necessary documentation, we have also developed a practical resource pack and training materials, to support committed pharmacists to set up best practice weight management services."

Any pharmacist wishing to supply orlistat under the patient group direction will have to undergo training, and have legal authority to supply the drug.

For more information, pharmacists can e-mail medinfo.uk@roche.com, with their name and address quoting weight management CD-ROM as the subject line.