Regulators looking to cut off maintenance below 25 BMI

[Bigfatsunandclouds]

Oushk have said that they are currently trying to fight with regulators to stop people being cut off from MJ at 25 BMI.

Apparently regulators don't like prescribing below that and that basically means unless you continue to remain at 25 or above you won't be able to be prescribed even for maintenance.

This is worrying as many see this as a lifetime medication after years of obesity but at least to maintain at a lower BMI for a little while to ensure the weight stays off. This seems like utter madness - this is surely going to lead to yo yo use of the meds which seems counterintuitive.

BMI in a lot of cases is a stupid archaic measurement anyway.

Also, it isn't ethically that great to worry people that their meds might get cut off if, what, they don't stay with Oushk?

What do you mean please?

I mean that is the impression they are giving, that they are 'fighting' for people to stay on MJ at a certain BMI etc

So I’ve looked up and read the enforcement notice. I don’t feel that concerned really. It all looks like stuff that can be sorted and I suspect many online pharmacies might get similar findings. I work in a lab and every time we are visited by our accreditors there is a list of findings which need to be resolved - this doesn’t feel much different. It needs to be rectified by the end of July so I will stick with Oushk until then… I can’t be bothered moving to another provider right now so I’m going to have a bit of faith that Oushk will fix things…

As for the changes to maintenance prescribing I agree can’t see anything like that in the notice - maybe there’s something about it in the full report. I don’t really care about all the social media noise as long as they keep sending out my pen.

Interestingly, I had my weight verification call today. I’d booked it about six weeks ago. They asked to see my passport. Asked me to film myself stepping on scales and asked me to show them me standing in the doorway which I presume gave an idea of my height… I guess these practices will go some way towards proving their safe prescribing practices. I ordered a new pen last night though and was surprised at the rapidity of the decision - I was approved first thing this morning… I hope they took the time to make a clear record of their prescribing decision!

There is another Oushk live on Thursday, pretty quick after last Friday as they usually only do one a month.

They asked to see my passport. Asked me to film myself stepping on scales and asked me to show them me standing in the doorway which I presume gave an idea of my height

This is interesting. I had mine last Tuesday and it was exactly the same as yours but no height-check. Obviously trying already.

I'm not on FB, so get none of the updates. Hopefully someone can watch and relay information back here 🤞

Sorry this is off topic. I had weight verified during maintenance video call with Oushk in March. Do we need to have it verified every 3 months, or is that something they’ve yet to implement? I’ve sent a medical document from last year which had my height and weight on it so hopefully that will suffice to verify my height.

@Angie7654
There's talk of every 3 months but, as far as I'm concerned, until I'm informed of changes via email, nothing's changed. I'm not on FB and not joining just to find out, especially as there's so much misinformation and speculation flying around since Friday (and off the cuff chat from Hira isnt helping). I did get an email this afternoon asking for a photo of my id, after making an order last week, so I'm thinking any changes will eventually be communicated through proper channels.

@KrankyKumquat thank you. I’ll wait then too until they ask me to do another one. I know, it’s so hard to know what to believe. It feels like a lot of panic going on for what will probably amount to a storm in a teacup

@Incognitoburrito88 I am glad it was a successful call. Someone on Reddit is complaining nobody showed up to theirs today!

Regulators (e.g. MHRA in UK) decide based on benefit:risk. Payors (e.g. NICE, for availability on NHS), decide on cost-effectiveness. So if it's a regulator decision, then it's based on sound science and I'd be inclined to agree with their assessment.

Well We need to see the evidence of this is going to happen. I really can’t see NICE getting too het up about bmis of 25.

@Angie7654
Yeah, I think some people are living their best lives over this at the moment. For some reason, oushk has always generated a lot of very bizarre love and an equal amount of disproportionate hate on social media. The inspection had been a gift for the latter group. Like you say, hopefully, all will get sorted soon and if we're not happy we can just go somewhere else.

Lotus weight loss will, as long as your BMI is over 19 and you’ve used the meds within past 6 months. I’ve got a code for £20 off if you check on the weight loss code section. They’re CQC registered too.

i’m not going to lie I was pretty worried it wouldn’t work but it was fine. Easy to log in and quick and professional.

I have mixed feelings about Oushk. I like the maintenance plans they outline on their website. I like their delivery policy and their eco packaging. In fact all my interactions with them have been good. What annoys me is all the rumour mongering a lot of which originates on here! If I didn’t come on Mumsnet I wouldn’t know anything was amiss! They did email me to tell me to book weight verification so maybe I just need to ignore the social media circus and just read the emails they send me!

There are some providers making a lot of money from WLI, whilst others struggle to make the same impact. So I don’t think it’s too surprising that there are people/providers who appear to be enjoying the current difficulties. I would however be aware of too much schadenfreude. Whilst I think Öushk need to take responsibility for the areas where they have fallen short, I’m not so sure that many others wouldn’t also find themselves in the same position. You only have to read the threads in this topic; how do I avoid photos/stop my GP finding out/get it with a BMI of 26 to know that it has been something of a Wild West, even amongst High St names. That the GPHC has signalled that it will be holding Pharmacies feet to the fire protects us all.

My feeling is that Oushk are organised enough and savvy enough to do what they need to, but if they don’t, there are other providers, and new providers are entering the space each week. Tesco’s will soon be offering WLI in a selection of stores and the other supermarket Pharmacies are expanding their services along with an increasing number of local community pharmacies.

I’m not very clued up on this sort of thing, if Oushk don’t come up to scratch by the required date, what will happen? Will they not be allowed to prescribe anymore? Is Hira the owner?

You've absolutely nailed it here Its clear to anyone with an open mind that Oushk are being entirely disingenuous to say the very least! As for scaring vulnerable overweight people into thinking their maintenance doses are about to be cut in an attempt to cover up their own serious failings well i have no words!

My guess, and I have obviously only seen the IN and not the report, but as there is a theme of documenting prescribing decisions, my suspicion is that it is the documenting of the maintenance doses that has caused the issues.

All prescribing decisions must be documented, but where there are gaps in records, the reasons for prescribing for a BMI above 30 are obvious. The reasons for prescribing at a BMI of 23/24 less so unless the clinician has recorded the plan agreed with the client.

This is all speculation on my part, but I’m not seeing anything suggesting that maintenance will be clamped down on per se. Just that it needs to be properly provided.

ETA - and yes Oushk are being disingenuous. Squirrel.

@HereIGoOnceMore yep, totally agree!

I have to say, I have had an enormous amount of respect for Hira and the stance she has taken on maintenance. Also love that Oushk is led by a woman. I stopped using them for a number of reasons including the fb group and their inability (refusal?) to deal with the loonies, the behaviour in lives where once again the ‘fans’ were almost encouraged, the bloody protein powder and because the customer service wasn’t actually as good as I had been led to believe.

I will say I do like the 15% maintenance discount but probably not enough to tempt me back!

Between me and my husband, we've been round a few pharmacies (getting the best prices). He is actually with Oushk for maintenance, I went with Simple as they're cheaper (to be fair, he got to his maintenance weight far quicker than I did, and at the time, there weren't so many pharmacies doing it which is why he went to Oushk).

The only pharmacy that did height checks with us were the first one we went with, which was Medino. I actually thought their checks were very good - you had to do photo/videos holding ID of your full body against a tape measure (that was fun trying to get it to balance over the top of the door!) as well as on the scales. We both also got a call from the pharmacist going through everything with us and checking if we had any questions.

This was back in January, and I remember how impressed we were at how thorough they were.

Only stayed with them for the first pen, as then went hunting the cheaper prices, but none of the other pharmacies have been quite as in depth with their photo/video requirements as Medino.

So by way of an update, that isn’t actually an update, I had my verification today. All good and straight forward, but when I asked about how maintenance might work, the assessor advised that I need to speak to customer services.

Interesting. Was this with oushk.

I hope they send an email out or something soon explaining what's going on etc

Yes, with Oushk.