Labour’s plan for free weight-loss injections on the NHS is facing a backlash from taxpayers who believe patients should buy them privately, a survey suggests.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has backed prescribing these drugs for obese patients in the hope it can address the country’s bulging waistlines.
But the public is largely opposed to the move at a time when the NHS – despite receiving record levels of funding – routinely misses targets for cancer, ambulances and waiting lists.
Britons are more likely to think people should pay for injections privately – or go without – than receive them for free on the NHS, according to the IPSOS survey of 2,161 British adults for the Mail and Guardian.
Some 34 per cent of voters think the NHS should provide weight loss injections, while 38 per cent say it should not.
The survey also found that more than one in five people (22 per cent) are “very or fairly likely” to use weight loss injections in the future if they were provided through the NHS.
But this reduces to just 8 per cent if they had to pay the current rate of around £180 to £220 a month to obtain them from a private prescriber.
Providing them to 22 per cent of adults in the UK at this price would cost the NHS £28 billion a year, about a sixth of England’s annual health budget.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has backed making weight loss drugs available on the NHS, despite the majority of the public believing people should pay for them privately.
More than one in five people (22 per cent) are “very or fairly likely” to use weight loss injections in the future if they were provided by the NHS (file image), according to a survey.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is increasingly clear to taxpayers that an all-encompassing health service is no longer sustainable.”
‘With the NHS not even able to carry out its vital functions at an adequate level, an expansion of the range of freely available treatments appears to be another example of misplaced priorities.
“Streeting should consider ways to encourage adoption of these coups privately before resorting to the taxpayer-funded credit card.”
The survey exposes a stigma around jabs, with one in four (23 per cent) of people planning to use them admitting they are unlikely to tell their friends or family.
Meanwhile, 9 percent of respondents already know a friend or family member who is taking them and 4 percent plan to use them themselves this January as they try to eliminate their flab in the New Year.
Mr Streeting, who proposed giving the jabs to obese unemployed people to get them back to work, has said: “Weight-loss drugs have huge potential.”
“When taken together with a healthy diet and exercise, they can be a game-changer in the fight against obesity and returning people to good health.”
But Dr Dolly van Tulleken, an obesity expert at the University of Cambridge, warned that, apart from “serious ethical, financial and effectiveness considerations”, the plans are also unrealistic.
Streeting has proposed vaccinating obese unemployed people to get them back to work (file photo)
The Wegovy weight loss vaccine is now available on the NHS for some patients and around 220,000 with greatest clinical need could receive Mounjaro over the next three years.
Nice’s drug watchdog has agreed that the NHS can stagger the rollout of Mounjaro to avoid it being overwhelmed by demand, with around 3.4 million people eligible.
Studies show that patients typically lose more than 20 percent of their body weight with Mounjaro and less than 14 percent with semaglutide, Wegovy’s key ingredient.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said weight loss jabs are “brilliant” when used responsibly and specifically, but he is “stunned” that people choose to use them “whether they want to or not”.
He warned that users risk serious side effects and said they are too often taken as a “recreational drug.”
Mr Fry added: “Everyone should persevere with their weight loss by choosing to eat better foods, eat less and exercise more.”
Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “The NHS should be, and is approved, to provide weight loss drugs as a cost-effective way to manage obesity and prevent future serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease, various types of cancer, dementia and depression.’
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Weight-loss drugs have been shown to be beneficial for some patients who meet certain criteria, and there is certainly great potential to improve health risks for many. patients, so they can live longer, healthier lives.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, President of the Royal College of GPs, delivers a speech at the university’s annual conference in Liverpool.
“However, it is important that weight loss medications are not considered a magic solution to losing weight: they are not without risk and will not be appropriate for everyone.”
A spokesperson for NHS England said: “While weight loss drugs are an important tool to help people lose weight, the large number of people potentially eligible for these treatments means it is right that the NHS is adopting a gradual rollout that prioritizes those at highest clinical risk.” need.’
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Obesity is debilitating, costs lives and places a burden on the economy and the NHS.”
“These obesity medications can greatly benefit those who really need them, but we must recognize that these medications are not a substitute for a good diet, a healthy lifestyle and exercise.”