THERE have been calls for greater regulation of weight-loss injections as at least 16 Scots have been treated in hospital after taking them.
The North Lanarkshire health board confirmed to The Times that between April last year and August this year, 12 patients were treated at the area’s emergency departments due to weight-loss injections.
It adds to four patients at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde who were admitted over the same timespan.
Last week, the death of a Scottish nurse (below) was linked to weight-loss drug tirzepatide – known as Mounjaro.
It comes after the UK Government confirmed it will run a trial in Manchester to find out if using weight-loss drugs can boost economic activity and reduce the burden of obesity on the NHS.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously denied that his plan to give overweight unemployed people injections to help them lose weight and get to work was "dystopian".
Mounjaro and the more widely known Ozempic are both self-injectable medications designed to regulate blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes. In the UK, Mounjaro is also approved for weight loss, whereas Ozempic is only authorised for managing type 2 diabetes.
Vicky Price, president-elect of the Society for Acute Medicine, hit out at how readily available the injections are.
She told The Times: “A doctor checks the forms but at no point is anyone seeing patients face-to-face.
“We’ve seen many examples where patients have lied on the form and been given the drugs when they shouldn’t have them. There is no safety check apart from the person’s own probity.”
Price added: “I have seen a huge increase in the number of patients coming into hospital with side effects from these medications. Thankfully most are relatively minor, such as diarrhoea and vomiting, but serious complications are possible.”
