Wes Streeting has denied that his plans to give new weight loss jabs to unemployed people to help them get back into work would lead to a “dystopian future” in which overweight people would be “involuntarily hit”.
The UK health secretary acknowledged that weight-loss drugs were not, on their own, the answer to the country's obesity crisis after suggesting this week that they could have a “monumental” impact on getting more people into work. .
However, he told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg program that the latest generation of drugs, such as semaglutide or tirzepatide, could be a “game changer” when it comes to reversing trends in obesity.
Streeting had said in an article for the Telegraph that “widening waistlines” were placing a burden on the NHS, and that drugs could be given to people to get them back into work and ease health service costs.
The government has announced a £279m investment from Lilly, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, and the deal is expected to include real-world testing of the impact of weight-loss shots on unemployment.
“I don't think the answer to obesity is simply weight loss hits, but there is a lot of evidence that these hits, combined with changes in diet and exercise, can help people reduce their weight to reduce cardiovascular disease but also diabetes. which is a game changer,” Streeting said.
“They are not the only solution and I do not want to create a culture of dependency. I'm not interested in a dystopian future where I wander around… unintentionally poking overweight unemployed people; That's not the agenda.
“If we can reverse the trends we are seeing in obesity, that will be better for the health of the nation… and for the finances of the nation, because we have to move from treating diseases to actively preventing them. But that is no substitute for good diet, nutrition and exercise.”
In a round of broadcast interviews, Streeting said he had reached a deal on NHS funding with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, but could not fix the problems of the last 14 years with a single budget.
He stressed the need for reforms as well as investment in the NHS, and said he was “aware” that money spent on health was money that could not be spent in other areas. He appeared to suggest that hospitals would have to improve productivity to benefit from additional funding.
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“Certainly the approach that the chancellor and I are taking is to link investment with reform,” he told the BBC. Asked whether hospital trusts would be penalized if they did not “play ball”, he added: “We definitely need to manage performance.
“I think it's a quid professional quo. “It is my responsibility to give system leaders the tools to do the job, and that is my responsibility as Secretary of State, but it is their responsibility to deliver.”
Streeting also said the number of appointments in the NHS was increasing, but did not have the exact data needed to see whether the government was on track to deliver on its promises. He reiterated that the NHS could not be fixed without also tackling the social care crisis.
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