Tirzepatide (Mounjaro)

NHS England and NICE have approved the use of Tirzepatide, which you may also know as Mounjaro® or ‘the weight loss drug’, from primary care. You may well hear that Tirzepatide is available in Primary Care from 23rd June 2025. However, in the first two years entry criteria have been set by NHS England to a very small number of people. This is to allow safe entry of this repurposed medicine into the health system.

Please only contact us if you are eligible, this means you have a BMI of 40kgm2 or higher (37.5 kg/m2 for people from South Asian, Chinese, other Asian, Middle Eastern, Black African or African-Caribbean ethnic backgrounds) and at least four of these additional conditions, which will already have been diagnosed by your GP or another medical professional:

∙            Hypertension 

∙            Dyslipidaemia 

∙            Obstructive sleep apnoea

∙            Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD)

∙            Type 2 diabetes mellitus 

Hospital Waiting Lists

Waiting Lists

Our hospitals continue to carry out Outpatient appointments and have resumed routine diagnostic work, surgeries and treatments.

Our waiting lists have been clinically reviewed to ensure patients are seen in priority order and we continue to monitor these lists.  This may mean you wait longer for your care, but we will be in touch as soon as possible with details of your appointment.

We are working on a number of different projects to increase capacity across our hospital departments.

We are introducing new pathways in order to support prioritisation of appropriate clinical elective care.  For example, Patient Initiated Follow Up (PIFU) and video or telephone consultations instead of face to face appointments.  If it is suitable for you to move into this type of pathway, your clinician will agree this with you as the best way forward.

Planned Care in Bedfordshire, Luton & Milton Keynes (BLMK)

The impact of the pandemic saw a drastic reduction in routine care being delivered across the whole of the NHS.  Nationally, this added to existing backlogs of care episodes already outstanding.  The Integrated Care Board for BLMK (formerly the Clinical Commissioning Group) and Bedford, Luton & Dunstable Hospitals have put together information to provide support to patients living in the BLMK area whilst waiting for treatment, as set provided below.

We would encourage anyone waiting for planned care to look at the websites below first, where you will hopefully find all the information you need.  If you cannot find what you are looking for or require further information, please contact your the hospital.

There is also information on these pages where you can follow a link to view average waiting time information for each department and find further help whilst you are waiting, including links to information about the NHS App and the platforms developed by NHS England/NHS Improvement: My Planned Care and Decision Support tools. More information on these platforms are detailed below:

NHS App:

Owned and run by the NHS, the NHS App is a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services on your smartphone and iPad/tablet, including ordering/managing prescriptions/repeat prescriptions, viewing health information, managing appointments and referrals, and much, much more.

You can also access the NHS App services from the browser on your desktop or laptop computer. To find out more about what the NHS App can offer simply go to: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/ 

Hospital waiting times & Information about your treatment (My Planned Care):

NHS England has developed an online platform called ‘My Planned Care’. This website gives advice and support while you wait and helps you to prepare for your hospital consultation, treatment, or surgery (excluding cancer treatment), for all acute hospitals across England and will be expanded over time to include Community and Mental Health hospitals.

If you are waiting for a hospital appointment, a procedure or treatment, you can access the platform to see average waiting times as well as helpful advice and support whilst you wait. The information is updated weekly and anyone can access it, including your carer, friends, relatives and the NHS team caring for you.

You don’t need to ring your GP, or the hospital caring for you for an update on waiting times as all of the information will be available on the My Planned Care website.

Updated weekly, the site is easy-to-use and has ‘open-access’ so carers, friends, relatives and NHS teams can also easily access this information.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – My Planned Care NHS

Decision Support Tools:

NHS England has added new information to their website to support shared decision making between you, as a patient, and your clinician. We hope you will find they are useful before, during or between consultations, depending on your care pathway.  They can help you to understand your condition, the treatment options available to you and support you to make a decision on the best treatment option for you depending on your personal circumstances and desired outcome.

NHS England » Decision support tools: making a decision about a health condition

My Hospital Journey

My Hospital Journey

A web page has been developed, which is available on the Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust website to provide you with information on:

• why there are long waits in the system in certain departments,
• what is being done to reduce the waiting lists,
• how we are working to keep you safe when attending hospital for appointments,
• how and when you will be communicated with,
• how you can manage your condition while you wait, and
• how you can prepare for surgery to ensure you are fit enough for it to proceed when your appointment is issued to avoid any further delays.

The link below will take you to the ‘My Hospital Journey’ web page for Bedford and Luton & Dunstable Hospitals.

My hospital journey - Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

National Data Opt-Out

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Extended Access Appointments

Extended Access Appointments at evenings and weekends are available within our network. Please ask reception using our form for more details.

Research and Surveillance Centre Practice

This practice is one of over 600 practices in England contributing pseudonymised data for national research and surveillance.

These data enable continuous monitoring of infections and diseases in the community and is used in ethically approved research. The RCGP RSC is the main source of information for Public Health England (PHE) and helps with prediction and management of flu outbreaks and pandemics.

Providing pseudonymised data does not affect patients, their care or privacy, however if you no longer wish to allow your information to be used, please speak to your GP.

Please view the Research and Surveillance Centre Practice leaflet for further information.