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.

Thanks @WeAllHaveWingsthats really helpful to understand.

I think that the GPHC may have also recently stopped authorising any more distance selling pharmacies, so I guess this is part of the general tightening up.

I’m sure most internal doors are around 2 metres, so it wouldn’t be that hard to verify height in a video call.

what regulators?

the ones authorising the medicine can review data and restrict or widen indications depending on observations.

It’s the GPHC - the Pharmacy regulator. Any services run by Drs and Nurses are regulated by the CQC (in England) who are tougher in theory, but are struggling to complete inspections.

ETA - it doesn’t affect the licence for the actual medicines.

She mentioned the GMC and said she thought Drs had more flexibility and they worked more WITH Drs where she thought the GPhC was stricter especially with online pharmacies and had unrealistic expectations. But that might just be a pharmacy vs Dr thing and being pissed off after their failed inspection.

she also said she wasn’t there for the inspection, not sure if that is because it was a surprise visit and she wasn’t available or she purposely stayed away

Hmmm. I’m not sure what she means there. The GMC regulates Drs to practice, but to supply prescription medicines (in England) an organisation either would usually be a GPHC registered Pharmacy or a CQC registered service for treatment such as a hospital, GP surgery or clinic.

Whichever professional is prescribing or supplying medicines is responsible for their clinical decisions and for their record-keeping. I would disagree that the GPHC is tougher - in my personal experience the opposite is true, but I can understand her frustration. Especially if the local inspector doesn’t understand maintenance prescribing.

ETA - Pharmacy inspections are unannounced, but sometimes hints are dropped if the Pharmacist has a good relationship with their inspector.

Omg 🤦🏻‍♀️. Hira spoke on the call about 2 complaints to GPhC about warms pens and how GPhC never hears about the good work they do, and joked (very obviously a joke) they could all give feedback, so a faithful Oushker has shared a link to the form for pharmacies to complain about the GPhC 🤦🏻‍♀️, and they are all using it to give the GPhC feedback on how brilliant Oushk and Hira are and how important maintenance is for them. As if the GPhC cares, they only care about prescribing guidelines.

That is not going to look good for them when the GPhC opens their mailbox on Monday morning and just after they have just failed an audit and are trying to explain to the inspector what maintenance is. It will look so unprofessional.

@WeAllHaveWings
Oh God, it's so embarrassing. As much as I appreciated getting your update as the opening post here was pretty concerning for us on maintenance, I can't help but think none of this should be being discussed on FB. I've suffered under statutory inspections all my career and the findings and action plans were shared with staff and management boards, not chatted about on SM. I don't think Hira realises that that group is full of loose canons or if she does, doesn't see what damage they do to her company's reputation.

Thanks for that comprehensive explanation @WeAllHaveWings I was on the FB group for about 10 mins but it's not for me 😂

I was hoping to use oushk for maintenance but this isn't sounding good

This is interesting! I’m wondering how it will go for other providers when they are assessed.

Been with mine for a year nearly, I have not been asked for any new pictures at all, nor had any kind of video/phone consult at any point.

I was also under the impression they contacted the GP - havent been there since I started) but i noticed wording has changed and it appears its only down to me to tell them! So they dont know at all!

I imagine they will be black marked for that!

@ThejoyofNC , how little you understand. Some people on this drug have become obese because they over consumed but many gained weight and couldn’t lose it because they had a degree of insulin resistance taking the medication normalised their metabolism. The first group could learn to control their weight, the second cannot control their weight without taking the medication because if they stop their insulin resistance will return.

BMI for some ethnicities is 23- have regulator and oush forgotten this? Doesn’t make sense …

My thoughts exactly, it is probably goinh to do the opposite of what they want to achieve

Oh that doesn’t sound good @WeAllHaveWingsI can appreciate the frustration, but at the same time the regulations aren’t secret and the new weight loss guidelines for pharmacies came out in February. Bluntly, I would suggest less time on Facebook and tightening up on their processes.

Thanks you for the detailed post @WeAllHaveWings. I must say I am worried about all this. I’ve been with Oushk for my whole journey and they have been brilliant. I’m now at bmi 25.5 and stuck on my current weight. I had hoped to keep going until I’d lost another 10 pounds (bmi 23.8) and then stay on MJ to maintain. I’m hypothyroid and on antidepressants and it’s taken me since October to get down to this weight!
Worried about not being able to access MJ going forward as I know I need to stay on it. Does anyone know of a good pharmacy which does maintenance plans and has a gp as part of their team? I’d rather stick with Oushk but now I’m unsure!

Great post @WeAllHaveWings thank you

They are v good, the 2 month deal is good anyway but you also get reward points and 5% off etc. Free next day delivery and if you want to join a WhatsApp to chat to others in the same boat you can (I haven’t joined that yet). They also offer blood test and dietician visit when you’re getting towards maintenance.

I switched for the maintenance programme and I’m happy so far.

I’ve got £20 off Lotus on the weight loss promo boards but feel free to DM me if you can’t find it. (I won’t put it on here as don’t want to rule break and this thread is really interesting)

I think what the Oushk fans are doing won’t go down well on Monday morning but I understand them trying to help Hira.

I think it’s pretty clear that obesity is not caused by individuals not taking “responsibility”. Developed countries are obesogenic. High-calorie, ultra processed foods are more readily available and cheaper than the “real food” alternatives . There is a lack of safe and accessible places for physical activity. Relentless marketing promotes unhealthy food choices, and fools people into thinking that unhealthy choices are healthy ones.

These drugs do more than curb appetite, they protect people from the overwhelming external forces that push calorific foods, drinks and habits onto us. People unwittingly create poor food habits in their children that affect them for life. Poverty and education is also a factor.

My prediction is that the drugs will get better, they will become cheaper, safer and more effective and in the future they will be prescribed in low doses as a preventative measure, like statins.

Pushing the “fat people have a personality defect” narrative is the most harmful thing you can do for long term public health.

@MrsFrankieHeck please can you post a link to Lotus? Not sure I’m looking at the right pharmacy online! Thanks.

@Letshavetea1
I know this is worrying but as a customer of oushk, I actually feel better about what they do now (apart from the FB nonsense). They've had a bad inspection but honestly don't think any pharmacies would have done all that the ghpc apparently want eg 100% of thousands of customers weight verification video, 2 warm pens complaints, such detailed consult questions. Seems that the regulator wants the whole basis of maintenance to change and Oushk is the first to be inspected under this regime so everything is being seen as their failure. I think there'll be a lot worse to come.

If they’d have no problem just switching to healthy eating and exercise to keep the weight off when they reach 25 then why would they ever have needed Mounjaro in the first place?! They never would have become obese. It’s very easy for people (myself included) to say “just follow healthy eating habits and cut out junk” when you’re on a drug that takes away any desire to eat unhealthily and suppresses your appetite. People being expected to “learn healthy habits” and stick to them when they come off MJ just isn’t realistic and stats have overwhelmingly shown that people put the weight back on. Everyone KNOWS how to eat healthily and how many calories they’re supposed to have..it’s not some magical secret that MJ unlocks! It’s just very hard for people with obesity to do this hence why they should have the option to stay on a maintenance dose of the drug, otherwise the whole thing is completely pointless

On reddit someone (who you may recognise as a possible poster of this parish) wrote a post that Live Well had been inspected under the new framework and passed. They are also a maintenance provider.

However, the OP has been deleted this morning and when I looked for Live Well's inspection report it said they'd failed on governance. So, who knows what to believe?

Jeeez your life sounds boring and hard! Why don’t you just get on WLIs to get rid of that gnawing hungry feeling and maintain your weight?! It’s so much easier. Let me guess (even if you were eligible) you consider it ‘cheating’, ‘not fair’ and that it is sooo important (for some strange reason) to ‘put the effort in’. Your post smacks of jealousy (because you’re not eligible for it) which fuels judgement and resentment against those who do get to take it and can easily get down to a bmi lower than yours

As far as I can see Livewell have an improvement notice whereas Oushk have an enforcement one.

https://inspections.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacy/download/9012516-2025-03-20-26206.pdf

https://inspections.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacy/enforcement/9012610-2025-07-02-3491.pdf

@Mounjour

Ooh that's very interesting if it's who I think you mean as she was banned previously but came back under a different account. I thought she'd been very quiet lately especially with all the oushk uproar yesterday which she'd normally be all over, with very tiresome relish.
Reddit have had a rash of very obvious affiliate nonsense and bot type posts recently so maybe they're finally cracking down on it.

Thanks @HereIGoOnceMore , I hadn't thought about that difference. It's making me wonder if I should jump ship from Oushk.

@KrankyKumquat I hadn't realised she'd been banned.