purchased weight loss jabs (sic), according to new data. That’s five times the number accessing them via the NHS. The figures come form Glasgow-based Simple Online Pharmacy, one of the UK’s largest providers. Regulators have stressed prescribers must check patient details. The Scottish Government say health boards decide access.
Professor John Robertson OBA
BBC Scotland has already attempted, last year (see below), to pin one possible weight-loss drug death onto the Scottish Government despite the victim’s awareness of the drug resulting from UK Labour Government’s attempt to use it to drive the obese back to work. Today they’re back at it, inaccurately linking what looks like potentially dangerous misuse with the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government say health boards decide access? Do they really need to keep being told that or do they just want to link, in the minds of viewers, the Scottish Government and a problem?
From the National on 22 October 2024:
Jackie Baillie (above), Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, told The Times: “Weight-loss jabs, alongside changes to diet and exercise, have the potential to be a game-changer in the fight against diabetes and cardiovascular disease.” She said the Scottish Government “must ensure that patients who have been recommended these approved jabs by their clinician can access them – the results could be life-changing”.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24670240.labour-push-snp-give-scots-weight-loss-jabs-nhs/
In LBC, one week earlier, Baillie’s boss, Wes Streeting had said more honestly:
Obese jobless Brits to be given weight loss jabs in bid to ‘get them back to work’, Health Secretary says. Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11 billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy. Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.
From CNN on 10 November 2024 but not seen by Baillie:
Compounded versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in approved diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, have been associated with at least 100 hospitalizations and 10 deaths, the chief executive of Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk warned Wednesday.
“Honestly, I’m quite alarmed by what we see in the US now,” Novo Nordisk President and CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen told CNN. “Patients who believe that they’re getting access to a safe product, and they believe they’re getting semaglutide … I know for a fact that they are not getting semaglutide, because there’s only one semaglutide, and that’s produced by Novo Nordisk, and we don’t sell that to others.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/06/health/compounded-semaglutide-deaths-novo-nordisk-ceo/index.html
How did the death of a Scottish nurse come about and what was the role of the Scottish Government in it?
On November 8th 2024, BBC Scotland had been making much of the tragic story of one Scottish Nurse, whose death may have been linked to the drug Mounjaro, which she bought online, in the wake of Wes Streeting’s widely reported enthusing about it and NHS England’s approval of it to be sold online and without, I think, any requirement for a GP to sign for it.
On the 15th October, the UK Government announced a 5 year trial of the safety and efficacy of the drug1 yet on the 4th September, the nurse, had been able to buy it online and presumably self inject it.
BBC Scotland have not linked the story of the death to the obviously influential and apparently irresponsible actions of the Labour Government nor have they researched the views of Scottish health boards. Imagine the Scottish Health Secretary had enthused about weight loss drugs in that way?
From NHS Lothian in November 2024:
Mounjaro® (tirzepatide) have both been approved for use in NHS Scotland to support weight management for health reasons. However, these medications have yet to be added to the East Region prescription list; therefore we are unable to accept referrals for Wegovy® or Mounjaro at this time.2
From NHS Highland:
Currently medicines for weight management are not recommended to be prescribed in NHS Highland.3
Most poignantly from the nurse’s own employer, NHS Lanarkshire:
Tirzepatide (Monjaro®). This medication is the dual agent. It has recently been approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, however it is not on NHS Lanarkshire’s prescription list. We currently don’t accept any referrals specifically for these medications as they are not available in NHS Lanarkshire. We will update our website with any further changes. NHS Lanarkshire does not recommend or endorse the purchase of weight loss medications privately. 4
Sources:
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjd54zd0ezjo
- https://services.nhslothian.scot/awmt2d/adult-weight-management-and-type-2-diabetes-prevention-service/weight-loss-injections/#:~:text=Wegovy%C2%AE%20(semaglutide)%20%26%20Mounjaro%C2%AE%20(tirzepatide)%20have,weight%20management%20for%20health%20reasons
- https://www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/health-and-wellbeing/healthy-weight/medicines-for-weight-management/
- https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/services/weight-management-service/weight-loss-medications/
BBC Scotland is choosing to confuse. The Scottish Government has no role in this. The UK Labour Government is behind the drive to use these dangerous drugs and the health boards decide whether to prescribe them
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This Labour Government makes a big deal about getting the unemployed /disabled back to work but….
In September the UK unemployment figure was 1.79 million , while the number of job vacancies was 723,000 .
Filling all these vacancies leaves in excess of 1million jobless – assuming that all the jobs available can be filled with suitable applicants who live within commuting distance ( LoL ) .
So, if Wes and Damn Jackie are distributing ”fat jabs ” to the jobless – where are the jobs ?
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Unemployment is far HIGHER in England than it is in Scotland, fact.
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Ozempic can have horrific side effects even for diabetic. My severely diabetic daughter takes it because it is all that works for her. It is effective in controlling diabetes, but even under a doctor’s care she was hospitalised with lifethreatening side effects because the doctor raised the dosage too quickly.
The irresponsibility of Labour in pushing people to take these drugs is beyond words.
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