NHS England are testing new ways to access medication for the management of obesity. It will support adults living with obesity outside of traditional specialist weight management services, which are accessed via hospitals.
The medicines will likely be prescribed within General Practice and then patients will be managed by specialist weight management services. The management through these services may be provided digitally e.g. on a mobile phone App. The pilot services and access to the medication will be offered only in certain areas of the country at participating General Practices.
Before making the services available to patients, NHS England want to understand a range of people’s experience to date with NHS weight management services. They are interested in understanding people’s concerns and feelings towards weight management medicines, and factors which might affect this. This will help NHS England to develop guidance for healthcare professionals and patients who might provide and receive this type of health care. NHS England are also interested in understanding whether people would want to be prescribed these medicines for obesity.
What does participation involve?
National Voices, a membership coalition charity for over 200 health and care charities, has been funded by NHS England to interview up to 15 people who have previously sought, been advised or referred for, weight management support in the NHS. Each person will attend one interview of up to one hour with someone from the project team at National Voices. This can take place via phone or video call as preferred.
They are looking for:
The project is seeking to interview adults who have previously sought, been advised or referred for, weight management support in the NHS.
Expected commitment from participants:
Each person will attend one interview of up to one hour with someone from the project team at National Voices. This can take place via phone or video call as preferred, and will be anonymised. Key themes across the interview will be shared with NHS England, but no individual responses or data. The interviews need to take place in November/December 2023.
They will ask you questions like
“How do you feel talking about weight”
“Can you tell me about your experience with the NHS or council and seeking support for your weight?”
“To begin with, the medicines won’t be available everywhere in England. If you didn’t live in area that had access to the medicines, how would that make you feel?”
Commitment to inclusion:
They are able to reimburse participants for their time in line with NHS England’s patient and public involvement rates at £75 per hour.
The interview will be scheduled at a time to suit each participant, and can be done by phone or online video call (Zoom, TEAMS etc) as preferred.
Closing date to apply:
15th December 2023
If you apply for this opportunity please let the organisers know that you saw it advertised by Shaping Our Lives. Thank you!
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