Emma Bower

speaker

1,286 appearances 13 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 14 Aug

Emma Bower’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 13 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 5.

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Talking General Practice · GPs push back on list cleaning, QOF obesity flaws, ARRS underspend · 26 Jun 2026 podcast

Yeah, so this is because of some new guidance the BMA GP Committee in England has put out over the past week or so about the obesity targets that were added to the quality and outcomes framework, the COF this year. matched

So, as part of the GP contract for this deal, two new indicators were added to the COF on obesity. matched

The first relates to referring overweight patients to weight management programmes, and this effectively replaces the weight management enhanced service that practices could sign. matched

Up to until this year. matched

So the funding for that has effectively been rolled into the COF and kind of covers that indicator. matched

But the second indicator is more complicated and that's where the problems come in, I think. matched

This relates to prescribing weight loss medication. matched

And to get COF payments for this depends on the percentage of eligible patients who've had a discussion with a clinician and are offered a prescription for weight loss medication and referred to a suitable behavioural. matched

Support program. matched

So what we're talking about here is prescribing tazepatide, or as it's more widely known, Moundjaro, which is its branded name, because that is the GLP1 medication that's approved by NICE to be prescribed in primary care. matched

So that QAF indicator on prescribing is worth 13 points, and to get the maximum points, you have to cover 80% of those eligible patients. matched

And when we're talking about eligible patients, what we mean is those matched

Those patients who are allowed to have this medication on the NHS? matched

The reason the BMA has put out this guidance is because the GP committee says it's got some really serious concerns about the financial viability of these targets. matched

Basically, it warns that it's going to cost practices far more to deliver the work than the money that they will get from the Quaff. matched

The thing to remember is to think about the context where which all this is happening. matched

This was one of the big things that the government trailed ahead of the contract being announced earlier this year, this year's GP. matched

Former health secretary Wes Streeting, he's a really big fan of these weight loss medications. matched

He's spoken a lot about how they could be the key to getting people off long-term sick leaves and back into work and also the role they could play in preventing serious health conditions. matched

You know, he's and I think he really felt that these GLP1 medications were a potential game changer. matched

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