Western Isles led the June–August 2025 comparison of medicines used for diabetes and weight loss. The figures combine both uses, and Scotland’s government says it will consider the findings.
NHS Western Isles prescribed GLP-1 medicines at almost three times the rate of the next-highest Scottish health board in June–August 2025, a pharmaceutical-industry report says. The comparison establishes wide geographic differences in prescribing, but combines treatment for diabetes and weight loss.
GLP-1 medicines are a class of drugs widely used for type 2 diabetes and approved for weight management in 2023. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), which represents drug companies, examined prescribing of medicines accepted for health-service use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.
BBC Scotland’s freedom-of-information reporting earlier in October 2026 found that fewer than half of Scotland’s 14 territorial health boards were prescribing GLP-1 medicines specifically for weight loss, and fewer than 800 people had received them for that purpose. Western Isles had 340 patients on weight-loss medication—the highest count among the bodies involved in access pilots.
ABPI’s June–August 2025 measure is a three-month average quantity of medication prescribed per head of population. It is not a count of patients receiving weight-loss treatment, so it must be kept separate from the newer figure of 340 Western Isles patients.
| Health board | Reported rate |
|---|
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| NHS Western Isles | 1,086.54 | Highest |
| NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 392.97 | Second-highest |
| NHS Shetland | 100.31 | Lowest |
The report’s authors caution that Western Isles and Shetland both serve small island populations, where a few prescriptions can substantially change the rate. The data also do not identify whether each prescription was for diabetes or weight loss. The comparison therefore cannot establish differences in weight-loss access alone or show how well treatment worked.
NHS Western Isles says it established a structured route to GLP-1 treatment earlier than any other Scottish NHS board. It attributes its prescribing rates to that early start and local clinical need, rather than participation in a pilot.
Clinicians assess patients before prescribing, and treatment forms part of a wider programme led by dietitians to support long-term changes in behaviour and healthier lifestyles. It says patients report, and its clinicians observe, significant clinical benefits.
Western Isles is one of six NHS bodies participating in pilots to improve access to weight-loss medication. The others are NHS Forth Valley, NHS Borders, NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire and the NHS State Hospital, known as Carstairs.
Victoria Jordan, ABPI’s executive director of patient access, said differences in patient need do not fully explain the variation in use of some accepted medicines. Acknowledging the data’s limits, she said avoidable barriers can leave patients waiting longer for medicines already judged effective and good value.
The Royal College of Physicians described restricted access to medicines it called safe and cost-effective as discriminatory against people with obesity. It argued that wider access could save the health service millions in obesity-related illness.
ABPI recommends better planning and cooperation, with greater transparency about local decisions on which medicines to use and how quickly accepted treatments are introduced. The Scottish government says it will carefully consider the findings and says its health-board reforms are intended to improve equal access and reduce unwarranted variation and bureaucratic barriers. The reforms include plans to reduce mainland health boards from 14 to two, which leading doctors oppose.
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