Wes Streeting says his plan to administer new weight-loss drugs to help unemployed people get back to work will lead to a “disaster” in which overweight people will be “unwittingly drugged”. He denied that it would bring about a “topian future.”
Britain’s Health Secretary admitted this week that weight loss drugs alone are not the solution to the country’s obesity crisis, after suggesting they could have a “tremendous” impact on the functioning of more people.
But he told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the latest generation of drugs, such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, could be a “game changer” when it comes to reversing obesity trends. .
Mr Street said in an article in the Telegraph that “waistband widening” was straining the NHS and the drug could be given to get people back into employment and reduce the cost of the health service. said.
The Government has announced a £279m investment from Lilly, the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company, with the deal expected to include a real-world clinical trial into the impact of the weight loss jab on unemployment. There is.
“I don’t think the answer to obesity is just to lose weight, but there’s a lot of evidence that these jabs, combined with diet and exercise changes, can help you lose weight and reduce cardiovascular disease as well as diabetes. “This is a game-changer,” Street said.
“They’re not the only solution, and we don’t want to create a culture of dependency. I’m not interested in a dystopian future where we walk around…beating overweight unemployed people senseless. No, that’s not the issue.
“If we can reverse the obesity trends we’re seeing, it’ll be good for our public health and good for our finances, because we have to move from treating disease to active prevention. But it’s no substitute for proper diet, nutrition, and exercise.”
Mr Streeting said in a series of broadcast interviews that although he had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Rachel Reeves on funding for the NHS, the problems of the past 14 years could not be solved in one budget.
He stressed the need for reform as well as investment in the NHS, saying he “recognized” that money spent on health is money that cannot be spent on other areas. He seemed to suggest that hospitals need to improve productivity to benefit from additional funding.
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“Certainly the approach that the Prime Minister and I are taking is to link investment to reform,” he told the BBC. Asked if there would be penalties if hospital trusts did not “act proactively”, he added: “We definitely need to manage our performance.
“I think it’s a quid pro quo. It’s my responsibility to give system leaders the tools to do their job, and that’s my responsibility as secretary of state, but it’s their responsibility to make that happen.” is.”
Mr Street also said he was increasing the number of NHS bookings, but did not have the precise data needed to confirm whether the government was on track to deliver on its promises. He reiterated that the NHS cannot be solved without also addressing the social care crisis.
