Information for community pharmacies

The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is available to all community pharmacies in England to refer into.

You may wish to download our screensaver and poster for use in your Pharmacy. You can also read the healthcare professional toolkit for more information about the programme.

How to refer from community pharmacy

To make a referral, please visit the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme Pharmacy Referral Site (you’ll need your pharmacy ODS code for access). Referrals from pharmacy are only accepted online through this website – the referral form will time out after 10 minutes.

You may wish to download and print off some referral forms from this Template Site so that you can fill in information needed for the referral whilst the patient is in front of you. Then, you must complete the referral through the website using the information from the form.

  • Step 1 – During a routine contact, the pharmacy team may identify someone as eligible for the programme or a member of the public may ask your team about being referred.
  • Step 2 – If eligible for the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme, the pharmacy team can refer the patient into the programme by completing a referral form with the patient. Our leaflet can be given to the patient at this stage.
  • Step 3 – When you have more time in the day to do so, you must complete the referral online using the information gathered on the referral form by visiting the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme Pharmacy Referral Site. Referrals are only accepted through this website. The pharmacy team will need to have access to an nhs.net email address to complete the authentication process.
  • Step 4 – Once a referral has been submitted online, confirmation will be sent to the pharmacy team’s email address and there is nothing more the pharmacy team will need to do to support the referral process.

What the service user will need to do

  • Step 1 – The service user will be contacted via a text message within two working days with a link to complete the referral process online.
  • Step 2 – The online referral hub will ask the service user to verify their date of birth and ethnicity to support their triage to the appropriate level of intervention. They will then be able to select their preferred programme from a choice of providers.
  • Step 3 – The chosen provider will contact the service user within 10 working days to start their programme.

Service users who do not initially respond to the text message will be contacted by phone by the Referral Management Centre to support them through the process.