Labour’s plan for free weight loss jabs on the NHS faces a backlash from taxpayers who believe patients should buy them privately, a poll suggests.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has backed the prescribing of the drugs to obese patients in the hope it can tackle the nation’s bulging waistlines.
But the public is largely opposed to the move at a time when the NHS – despite receiving record levels of funding – is routinely missing targets for cancer, ambulances and waiting lists.
Britons are more likely to think people should pay for the jabs privately – or go without – than get 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 be providing weight loss jabs, while 38 per cent say it should not.
The survey also found over one in five people (22 per cent) are ‘very or fairly likely’ to use weight loss jabs in the future if they were provided on the NHS.
But this drops to just 8 per cent if they had to pay the going rate of around £180 to £220 a month to source them from a private prescriber.
Providing them to 22 per cent of adults in the UK at this price would cost the NHS £28billion 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
Over one in five people (22 per cent) are ‘very or fairly likely’ to use weight loss jabs in the future if they were provided on the NHS, a survey found (Stock image)
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s becoming clear to taxpayers that a do-it-all health service is no longer sustainable.
‘With the NHS not even able to perform its vital functions to an adequate level, an expansion in the range of treatments freely available looks to be another example of misplaced priorities.
‘Streeting should be considering ways to encourage take up of these jabs privately before reaching for the taxpayer funded credit card.’
The survey exposes a stigma around the jabs with one in four (23 per cent) people who plan to use them admitting they are unlikely to tell their friends or family.
Meanwhile, 9 per cent of respondents already know a friend or relative who is taking them and 4 per cent plan to use them themselves this January as they try to shift their flab in the New Year.
Mr Streeting, who proposed giving the jabs to obese jobless people to get them back to work, has said: ‘Weight-loss drugs have enormous potential.
‘When taken alongside healthy diet and exercise, they can be game-changers in tackling obesity and getting people back to good health.’
But obesity expert Dr Dolly van Tulleken, from the University of Cambridge, has warned that, besides the ‘serious ethical, financial, and efficacy considerations,’ the plans are also unrealistic.
Mr Streeting has proposed giving the jabs to obese jobless people to get them back to work (file photo)
The weight loss jab Wegovy is already available on the NHS to some patients and around 220,000 with the greatest clinical need could receive Mounjaro over the next three years.
The drugs watchdog Nice has agreed the NHS can phase the roll-out of Mounjaro to prevent it being overwhelmed by demand, with an estimated 3.4million people eligible.
Studies show patients typically lose more than 20 per cent of their body weight on Mounjaro and less than 14 per cent on semaglutide, the key ingredient in Wegovy.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said weight loss jabs are ‘brilliant’ when used responsibly and in a targeted manner but he is ‘gobsmacked’ that people are choosing to use them ‘willy-nilly’.
He warned users risk serious side-effects and said that too often they are being taken like a ‘recreational drug’.
Mr Fry added: ‘Everyone should persevere with their weight loss by choosing to eat better food, eating less of it and exercising 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 serious future health issues, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, dementia, and depression.’
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairman 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’s certainly a lot of potential to improve the health risks for many patients, so that they can live longer, healthier lives.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, delivering a speech at the college’s annual conference in Liverpool
‘However, it is important that weight loss drugs are not seen as a silver bullet for weight loss – they do not come without risk, and they won’t be appropriate for everyone.’
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘While weight loss drugs are an important tool to support people to lose weight, the sheer number of people potentially eligible for these treatments mean it’s right that the NHS is adopting a phased rollout which prioritises those with the greatest clinical need.’
A Department for Health spokesman said: ‘Obesity is debilitating, costs lives, and burdens the economy as well as the NHS.
‘These obesity drugs can greatly benefit those in real need but we must recognise these drugs are not a replacement for a good diet, healthy lifestyle and exercise.’
