The GLA Health Committee is made up of five members from three different political parties (Labour, Conservative and Reform), they are currently running an investigation into weight loss jabs and invited Londonwide LMCs to send a representative to give a GP perspective on them. The GLA has no formal health powers but has historically had an interest in population health, looking at issues such as men’s mental health and maternity services. Their weight loss jabs investigation also includes this patient survey which they have asked GPs to share.
The full stream from 10 September 2025 can be watched below with Dr Hibbert taking questions alongside Dr Dorottya Norton, Joint Bariatric AHP and Specialist Adult Weight Management Clinical and Service Lead, Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr Hibbert’s main points are summarised as:
- GLP-1s should be seen as part of a course of treatment and a way of assisting weight loss through lifestyle changes. They are not just a fortnightly injection that can be initiated and a patient experiences weight loss, they require significant changes to dietary and exercise habits with substantial GP oversight.
- For some people they work very well, they lose a lot of weight and their diabetes indicators improve substantially. But for others they do not work, side effects include gastrointestinal problems, pancreatitis and dramatic drops in blood pressure.
- No additional funding has been provided to cover GP time spent on the initiation, monitoring and supporting of patients on GLP-1s, which is putting pressure on GPs and this will grow as eligibility criteria are expanded.
- The long-term gains for the NHS from GLP-1s are very likely to be positive, but these will only be realised in the future and currently they are a taking up more clinical capacity than they are releasing through improved patient health,
- Patient expectations of GLP-1s availability on the NHS are currently very different from the prescribing criteria being set out by ICBs, following the allocation of funding for the drugs by NHS England. This places GPs in a difficult position and is detrimental to the doctor/patient relationship which is so key to effective care.
- It would help for national messaging to be clearer about the limited NHS eligibility rather than leaving it to GPs to explain this, particularly with the extent of positive media coverage of GLP-1s which pushes up patient demand.
The committee hearing was covered by the Local Democracy Reporting service, which was picked up by the BBC, MyLondon and local papers in Waltham Forest, Enfield, Harrow, Haringey, Southwark and Barnet. Dr Hibbert was interviewed by BBC London for a follow-up story after the coverage of the GLA committee was published (see below).