Major fat jabs update as NHS pushed to roll out weight loss injections

Revolutionary weight loss drugs like Mounjaro could help the to save billions, but the health service needs to "get with the times" and speed up their rollout across the UK, Labour's Health Secretary has said.

Around 3.4 million people are eligible for the under current rules, which broadly require a person to be heavily obese with weight-related health conditions to qualify.

Under the current system, it could take as much as 12 years to deliver drugs like Wegovy or to all of these patients, despite its potential to save the NHS billions in treatments for obesity-related conditions.

Research indicates that these weight-loss treatments can slash heart attack risk, as well as a series of other benefits being studied by scientists. With this money and life-saving possiblity in mind, has demanded that the NHS "can and should go faster" to get these jabs rolled out.

Around 220,000 patients have been given the jab as part of an NHS program targeting high-priorty patients, the has reported. However, many, including the Health Secretary, see this as too slow.

Many Brits are being forced to use private healthcare to access the medicine, which is known generically as Tirzepatide and approved by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence regulators.

Around 1.5 million people in the UK are thought to have been on the treatment in last month alone, but many more could benefit.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has claimed that a full rollout of the weight loss jabs to 15 million people by 2050 could save the Exchequer an astonishing £52 billion - roughly the amount spent each year on the Defence budget.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the drugs could be a "game-changer" for national health, adding: "I want to see us put our foot down on the accelerator.

"We need to get with the times and make sure those who might not be able to afford these drugs are able to access them.

"I absolutely accept the challenge that the NHS can and should go faster and we're looking at what we can do to speed things up."