The government has shared plans to help obese unemployed people return to work through weight loss jabs. Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the “widening waistbands” as placing a burden on the NHS.
Currently, weight loss medicine, like Ozempic or Mounjaro, could be administered to people in order to facilitate their return to employment and ease costs to the health service, he added.
Streeting wrote in a Telegraph opinion piece that his suggestion follows a £279 million investment from Lilly – the world’s largest pharmaceutical company – coinciding with an international investment summit.
He stated: “Our widening waistbands are also placing a significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11 billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy.” He continued by highlighting that illnesses caused by obesity lead to an average of four additional sick days per year, while many others may be forced out of work altogether.
The plans announced at the summit are set to include real-world trials to assess the impact of weight loss jabs on worklessness, according to the Telegraph.
A study by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly will examine whether administering the drugs can reduce worklessness and analyze the effects on NHS service use, with the trials scheduled to take place in Greater Manchester.
Streeting further asserted, “The reforms this Government will put in place will open the NHS up to work much more closely with life sciences, to develop new, more effective treatments, and put NHS patients at the front of the queue. The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.”
However, he insisted that individuals need to take “healthy living more seriously,” as the “NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles.”
Source: Wandsworth Times
