Doctors in Scotland are prescribing weight-loss medications at a rapidly accelerating rate, with new figures revealing the cost to the NHS has surged to nearly £18.7 million in a single year.
Prescription Numbers and Costs Skyrocket
Official data from Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows the number of prescriptions for the drug semaglutide more than doubled in the 2024/25 period. The medication, sold under brand names including Ozempic and Wegovy, was dispensed 168,486 times, compared with 79,182 the year before.
Each prescription costs the health service over £110, but patients pay nothing due to the Scottish Government's free prescriptions policy. The report also highlighted a sharp rise in spending on another weight-loss treatment, tirzepatide. Unused in Scotland two years ago, it cost £2 million
Broadening Access Amid a Deepening Health Crisis
This prescribing surge follows a change in official guidance. Until last year, health boards advised GPs to limit semaglutide mainly to patients with diabetes. New Scottish Government rules now allow doctors to prescribe it for a wider range of obesity-related conditions.
Professor Michael Lean, a clinical research fellow at the University of Glasgow’s School of Medicine, told the Daily Telegraph that more GPs are offering the drug where a patient has a “serious medical condition which could be improved by losing weight.” He described semaglutide as “an absolute revelation,” despite acknowledging it is “very, very expensive.”
The move comes against a stark backdrop: 67% of Scottish adults are overweight, with around half of those classified as obese. Scotland has the deepest obesity crisis in the UK and one of the worst in Europe. PHS warned in October that the nation could face up to 1.6 million cases of obesity by 2040.
Taxpayer Concerns and Private Market Growth
The escalating bill has prompted warnings from politicians. Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said that while the drugs appear effective, “serious concern is warranted” over the cost to the taxpayer.
Alongside the NHS provision, a significant private market has emerged. It is estimated that around 300,000 people in Scotland, roughly 5% of the population, are now paying privately for weight-loss medications.
A Scottish Government spokesman stated: “We have a clear route for... obesity medicines to be appraised for their routine use in the NHS in Scotland through the Scottish Medicines Consortium.”
