Weight loss injections are the “talk of the House of Commons tea rooms” and widely used by MPs, the health secretary has said as he pledged to widen public access to them.
Speaking as the government launches a 10-year-plan for the NHS, Wes Streeting said access to weight loss injections should be “based on need and not the ability to pay”.
Currently people with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or more, or 30 or more with a linked health condition, can be prescribed jabs on the NHS through specialist weight-management services.
It is estimated that about 1.5 million people in the UK are already taking weight loss drugs, which may have been prescribed through specialist weight loss services or obtained via private prescription costing hundreds of pounds a month.
Streeting told LBC radio: “Weight loss jabs are the talk of the House of Commons; half my colleagues are on them and are judging the rest of us, saying: ‘You lot should be on them.’
“And the thing is, if you can afford these weight loss jabs, which can be over 200 quid a month, well, that’s all right for you. But most people in this country haven’t got a spare two and a half grand a year and often the people who have the worst and most challenging obesity also have the lowest income.”
Streeting said he was bringing “the principle of fairness which has underpinned the NHS” to weight loss jabs. “It should be available based on need and not the ability to pay,” he said.
The jabs would be part of a range of measures “including people getting more fit, more active, supporting people on diet and nutrition”, he said. “That’s the bit of the weight loss jab debate that sometimes gets lost. It’s not that you can have some weight loss jabs and stuff your face with Jaffa Cakes.”
In a speech on Thursday, Keir Starmer will say that the new 10-year-plan for the NHS marks the beginning of a “major programme of renewal and rebuilding that will transform the entire country”.
He is expected to say that the plan will “fundamentally rewire” the health service and shift a huge amount of care from hospitals into new community health centres to bring treatment closer to people’s homes and cut waiting times.
This week a study estimated that the cost of the UK’s epidemic of overweight and obesity had soared to £126bn a year, far higher than previous estimates. The bill includes the costs of NHS care (£12.6bn), the years people spend in poor health because of their weight (£71.4bn) and the damage to the economy (£31bn).
Streeting said taxes had been going “up and up” to pay for the health service and that the jabs were a route to not just lower weight but lower taxes too.