Scotland’s cash-strapped NHS is now spending £10m a year on weight-loss injections – according to new figures that highlight the spiralling cost of the country’s obesity crisis.
Demand for jabs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro is rising month on month, putting growing pressure on the health service’s already over-stretched budgets.
However experts believe there are around a million people in Scotland who could potentially be eligible for the drugs, meaning the number and cost of prescriptions is set to soar even higher in coming years.
This week, 23-times grand-slam winner Serena Williams admitted she’d turned to so-called ‘fat jabs’ after gaining weight following the births of daughters Olympia, seven, and two-year-old Adira, with her husband Alexis Ohanian.
Official Scottish prescribing data shows that doctors are currently turning more and more to the treatment which has revolutionised peoples’ ability to lose weight.
The injections, which suppress appetite by tricking the brain into thinking the stomach is full, have been available privately for several years, but have only been widely prescribed by the health service – for the most severely obese patients – since last year.
In January, the Scottish NHS dished out 8,207 injectable pens containing Mounjaro, Wegovy or Ozempic – at a cost of £692,000.
Newly released figures show that by May the number of prescriptions had risen 28 per cent to 10,518 a month.
Tennis sensation Serena Williams this week admitted she took the jabs to lose baby weight
Ms Williams looked much slimmer this week attending the launch of her Wyn Beauty range
By May this year the number of Scottish prescriptions had risen 28 per cent to 10,518 a month
Meanwhile the monthly cost had risen a third to £913,150 – equivalent to more than £10m a year.
And Dr Andrew Fraser of Obesity Action Scotland said prescriptions were sure to keep rising ‘dramatically’.
He explained: ‘The demand is huge. The majority of the population is overweight, and a significant number are obese. The number of people in Scotland who could benefit could easily run to seven figures.’
Recent research suggests obesity costs Scotland around £5.3 billion a year including £772 million a year for the NHS to diagnose and treat conditions linked to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and various cancers, plus problems with overloaded hips and knees.
There are also billions in indirect costs to society – from loss of productivity, sick days and premature mortality.
Dr Fraser said that despite the huge short-term cost of prescribing weight-loss injections, there could be long-term benefits for patients and the NHS.
He said: ‘The costs would be enormous. But obesity costs billions. So the attractions of finding a drug that can help people lose weight and turn a corner are very great.’
The new drugs were discovered a decade ago and were originally used to regulate blood sugar as a treatment for diabetes.
The injections suppress the appetite by tricking the brain into thinking the stomach is full
But doctors also found patients shed up to 20 per cent of their body weight – meaning the drugs were enthusiastically adopted by celebrities and others who were prepared to pay for them on a private prescription.
After the drugs were approved for use in the NHS for weight loss, an expert group convened by the Scottish Government and NHS last year warned health boards would find it financially ‘challenging’ to meet the demand.
As a result, they recommended a phased roll-out, with the drugs initially prescribed only to the most severely obese patients – those with a BMI above 38.
Without suggesting a definite timescale, they also recommended a second phase to offer jabs to patients with a BMI of 35+.
A third phase would see them offered to patients with a BMI of over 30 – while acknowledging that the number of such patients is ‘approximately one million’. Rolling out the drugs on such a vast scale would cost the health service up to £3bn a year.
Dr Fraser warned the injections shouldn’t be seen as a cure-all.
He said: ‘These drugs don’t solve the underlying problem of people becoming overweight in the first place. And there is always the danger of people putting weight back on once they stop taking them.’
He called for measures to stop shops and restaurants bombarding people with unhealthy foods.
He said: ‘The environment in which people make choices about the food they buy needs to change. As long as people are constantly greeted with the same high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar foods, no amount of drugs will stop us putting on weight.’
Last week the Daily Mail revealed that the NHS will next year roll out a nationwide project called Total Diet Replacement, with thousands of overweight patients given low-calorie soups and shakes.
Doctors believe a calorie-restricted diet – with patients consuming just 900 calories a day for up to five months – could prove as effective as the injections and considerably cheaper.
A year’s supply of injections currently costs the health service around £3,000 per person.
By contrast, prescribing soups and shakes should prove much more cost-effective and long-lasting. The scheme is set to cost £5.6m for 3,000 patients – a one-off cost of around £1,866 per person.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
