The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is available to refer into from all general practices in England.

How to refer from general practice

Any healthcare professional working in a general practice who has access to the e-referral system can refer patients living with obesity who also have a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension or both.

You can only make a referral via your EMIS, SystmOne or Vision e-referral (e-RS) system. You will need the referral templates which are available to download on the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme GP Template Site (you’ll need your practice ODS code for access).

These templates are available for all three GP IT systems and do not need to be printed and re-scanned in. Please use the templates electronically only.

You may wish to contact your local data quality team if it would normally be their role to upload new clinical templates on your general practice’s IT system.

Please do not edit or change the template as this may result in your referral being rejected.

If your general practice uses Ardens Healthcare, DXS Systems or Primary Care IT, the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme e-referral templates have been uploaded onto your EMIS and SystmOne IT systems and are ready to use. Please speak to your Ardens, DXS or Primary Care IT contact if you are having difficulty locating them.

Read the general practice toolkit for more information about the programme. You may wish to download this poster and screensaver to use in your general practice.

The programme patient leaflet should be used at point of referral.