Welsh LMCs to debate providing GLP-1 therapies in GP practices

GP leaders in Wales are going to debate whether to ask the Government to commission practices to provide and monitor GLP-1 therapies.

At their national conference in Newport next month, LMC leaders from across Wales are going to vote on issues affecting the profession, including funding and GP underemployment.

The conference agenda includes a motion calling on the Government to commission practices through GMS to provide and monitor GLP-1 therapies ‘with appropriately funded Supplementary Services’.

The motion notes that there is ‘growing evidence for the effectiveness of GLP-1 receptor agonists’ in weight management but that access being limited to private provision is ‘widening health inequalities’.

The Welsh Government has already said it is developing a new model to expand capacity across specialist, primary care and community settings to make weight-loss drugs more widely available while providing wrap-around support.

Previously, the weight-loss medication was only available on the NHS in Wales through specialist weight management services.

It follows NICE’s approval of tirzepatide in December 2024 for treating obesity in adults, with an estimated 186,000 people in Wales potentially meeting the eligibility criteria.

The conference agenda also includes a motion demanding formal negotiation and agreement of the GMS contract ‘should remain with the recognised tripartite parties’- the Government, the NHS and the BMA – ‘in order to avoid conflicts of interest and to protect the integrity of the independent contractor model’.

It comes after in England, as exclusively revealed by Pulse, the Government decided to overhaul the contract process effectively stripping the BMA of its role as sole negotiation for the GP contract, following a breakdown in relationship.

The Welsh LMCs are also going to debate the GP underemployment crisis, with a motion calling on GPC Wales to work with Welsh Government to provide sufficient additional funding to GP practices to enable employment of ‘the large numbers of newly qualified GPs who are currently struggling to find sufficient work’ and are instead looking ‘at other options overseas or in different careers’.

They are also going to vote on demanding a review of the Carr-Hill formula specifically tailored at Wales practices, as well as the introduction of a ‘rolling three-year GMS settlement cycle’ including indicative funding envelopes.

At the end of last year, Welsh GP leaders reached a deal with the Government resulting in £41.9m of investment for 2025/26.

The union’s GP committee for Wales said that, following ‘extensive negotiations’ with the Welsh Government and NHS Wales, it has reached a final GMS contract deal, covering the current financial year and elements of 2026/27.

The agreement was backed unanimously by the GPC, and the investment was backdated to April, including the full 4% pay uplift for GP partners, salaried GPs and practices staff recommended earlier this year by the independent pay review body, as well as an expenses uplift for practices.

Chair of conference Dr Tim Davies said: ‘The negotiated GMS contracts for 2025/26 and 2026/27 are very positive in a financial sense – and we know there is a lot of joint work underway already relating to the many commitments for the coming year and beyond.

‘We fully appreciate the extraordinary pressures facing Welsh general practice, the conference needs to rise to these challenges by focusing on how it wishes to direct GPCW with potential solutions, rather than focussing on just the pressures themselves.’

The conference is taking place on 7 March at Celtic Manor Resort, Coldra Woods, Newport.