Government aims to increase productivity and ease NHS strain with 'radical' weight loss injection plans

The health secretary’s plans to give overweight unemployed people weight loss injections could tackle unemployment and alleviate strain.

In an article in The Telegraph, Wes Streeting announced upcoming trials looking at the the effects of weight-loss injections on unemployment rates.

He claims the trials will test the "real-world effectiveness" of the weight-loss jab Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, over an extensive five-year study.

In the article, Streeting claimed that obesity was costing the NHS £11 billion a year, and hindering economic productivity. He said that illness caused by being overweight can lead to sick days and in some cases, unemployment.

Speaking on The Division Bell podcast, the ’s Lizzy Buchan said: “I think it's quite a radical idea in a lot of ways and I do think that that there is an argument to be made.”

“Obesity is a contributing factor to a number of illnesses and this is what the government thinks is a clever way to look at two quite big problems, which is funding the NHS and Britain's productivity problem and getting people back into the workforce.”

She added: “Illnesses linked to obesity cost the NHS billions and billions of pounds, so they clearly think that they can by doing this if they can get people to lose weight and reduce the burden on the NHS.”

Weight loss jabs currently being prescribed on the NHS and sold privately slow digestion and reduce appetite by mimicking hormones which regulate hunger and feelings of fullness. They are designed to act like one of these hormones, known as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1). Some users suffer unbearable side effects of nausea and diarrhoea.

Questions remain about the long terms effects of the drug and overall impact on productivity and health.

Lizzy said: “There is this a risk of medicalising obesity here that makes some people quite nervous…I think that there are broader issues about how you get people back into work. And I guess this is being trialled, so we'll have to wait and see. But I can see that there is a nervousness here both amongst the public and probably some politicians.”

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