The Weight Watchers Referral Scheme – Information For Health Professionals

 

Article By: Weightwatchers.co.uk   Print   Email

 

The Weight Watchers Referral Scheme is a 12 week package that brings the Weight Watchers programme and weekly meeting support to NHS patients, offering choice to adults engaging with weight management services.

There are currently 30 million adults in the UK who need access to weight management services, but the capacity of the NHS is limited. In contrast to intrinsic limitations in NHS provision, Weight Watchers has the operational infrastructure to provide the ‘industrial scale’ of services recommended by the Darzi Report: Weight Watchers offers over 6,000 weekly meetings; 7 days a week, morning, afternoon and evenings, in accessible community venues across the UK.

While standard treatment packages like this do not suit the needs of all patients, especially those with complex needs, Weight Watchers meets NICE best practice standards and is underpinned by a robust level of research and evaluative data – so is well placed to support the NHS in managing the scale of services required.

Such an approach spares the very skilled input which qualified health professionals can provide for those who most need it and means that the NHS does not have to invest in the development of their own group interventions, helping to maximise the cost effectiveness of obesity strategies at PCT / LHB / HB level.

The scheme is proven to be both effective and cost effective.
The initial audit of the scheme1 was based on over 1058 patients and indicated an average weight loss of 5.2kg over 12 weeks and found that 55.5% of patients attended every single meeting. The headline results from this initial audit were presented at the European Congress of Obesity in 2008 and an abstract published in the International Journal of Obesity².

The cost effectiveness of the scheme was evaluated by the Health Economics Consortium at York University for the prevention of obesity3, the findings of which are presented in the form of an incremental cost per QALY. The NICE4 guidelines on obesity estimate the cost effectiveness of surgery for obesity to be in the range of £6,300 to £8,500 per QALY, while drugs used to suppress diet range from £3,200 to £24,000 a year. By comparison, the cost effectiveness of a weight management programme with Weight Watchers is around £1,000 per QALY. This evaluation concluded that; ‘Weight Watchers appears to be offer a cost effective means of providing weight management services for NHS patients’.

Paul Trueman, author of the study said: ‘One of the key elements in the cost effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent obesity is that they produce a lasting effect, with weight loss being maintained over time. The advantage of Weight Watchers over other similar commercial organisations and services provided by the NHS, where people receive dietary guidance, is that Weight Watchers have conducted trials involving two year follow-up studies5 which prove the long term effectiveness of their methods’. These observations are supported by additional studies looking at weight loss maintenance after 5 years ^6,7.

To date almost two thirds of PCTs across England are engaged with the scheme, patients of which having being referred by a variety of NHS professionals usually working in a primary care setting, including; GPs, practice nurses and registered dietitians.

Are you a member of the public looking for more information on the NHS referral scheme? Find out more about the scheme.

References

1. Aston L, et al (2007) Weight change of participants in the Weight Watchers GP Referral Scheme. Report by the MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge.
2. Poulter, J and Hunt, P (2008) Weight change of participants in the Weight Watchers GP referral scheme , Int J Obesity, 32, Suppl 1, S233.
3. Trueman P and Flack S (2006) Economic evaluation of Weight Watchers in the prevention and management of obesity. Poster presentation at the conference of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, December 2006.
4. NICE (2006) Obesity: Guidance on the prevention, identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in adults and children. NICE Clinical Guideline 43.
5. Heshka S et al (2003) Weight loss with self-help compared with a structured commercial programme: A randomized trial. JAMA, 289 (14): 1792-1798.
6. Lowe MR et al (2001) Weight loss maintenance in overweight individuals one to five years following successful completion of a commercial weight loss programme. International Journal of Obesity, 25: 325-331.
7. Lowe MR et al (2007) Weight loss maintenance 1, 2 and 5 years after successful completion of a weight-loss programme. Br J Nutr, Nov 28; 1-6