Is this going to open a floodgate - weight loss jabs for unemployed

Amazing news!

I’m loving this very sensible policy decision. It’s going to save the NHS so much money and generate higher productivity for the economy. I hoped this would happen but feared it wouldn’t be popular enough.

A "floodgate" to what?

Can you clarify what you mean by opening a floodgate?

Floodgate of what?
It's a 5-year trial of 3000 patients and the results will inform the wider policy. None of us can say what the outcome is going to be which is the whole point of conducting a study.

What's your aibu?

What happens if somebody says they're happy being obese and living a life on UC+PIP?

Nobody can force them to inject.

Will benefits be withdrawn in an attempt to force them back into work? I'm guessing not.

Wish you could opt out of your taxes paying for things like this.

Many people are out of work because of health issues caused by their weight. Any scheme which is designed to lessen the impact on the NHS and reduce the number of people claiming benefits by getting back into work is a good thing in my opinion.

What @MillyMollyMandHey trials of things that might lead to vastly higher savings than things cost?

Wish there was a way of spending my taxes on improving the level of intellect of some people.

But your tax is paying to treat my obese colleagues who had heart attacks and were off work for 6 months on full pay (paid for by taxpayers). They wouldn’t have had heart attacks if they weren’t very obese

Your Logic makes no sense

Wow. I'm staggered at how fast this trail haa been implemented. Usually these things take so long to respond to medical tech changes. I think it can only be a good thing. It will establish the effectiveness of the drug for a number of purposes. I one who thinks they could be an amazing benefit and more research is good. I forsee being able to get the drug in multiple forms (pills, implants etc) within a few years.

The NHS isn’t renowned for floodgates. It is a limited pilot that will take years to be rolled out to the people who need it. In the meantime the NHS needs to learn more about these drugs because they will come off patent in a few years and they aren’t expensive to make.

once more data and evaluation is available qualified people can decide on how they should be prescribed and the debate won’t be lead by the Daily Mails click bait headlines.

But the effects to the NHS from obesity are fine? Or the cost of benefits?

It's a great idea.

Good.

What we want is people to be healthy enough to lead full and productive lives.

If they need help to get there, why not give it?
It's cheaper for the country in the long run.
And there's no medals awarded for doing it by yourself. If there's something you can have to make it easier for you then what is the point of struggling without it?

The point is the end result, not the process.

I had no idea people were out of work due to obesity. Great initiative, giving them back quality of life and getting back to work. I approve. It will save so much money ling term.n

They MIGHT NOT have had heart attacks if they weren’t obese. You don’t know. Most the people I’ve know who’ve had heart attacks were skinny and a couple were triathletes.

She would probably not have wanted your colleague to get treatment for that either

I am not convinced of the ethics or feasibility of this clinical study. There are so many other confounding factors in unemployment that are not directly related to obesity. I think that the ethics committee will struggle to approve.

I think those floodgates are already wide open. This forum is flooded with posts about these jabs including lots about how to get around the controls by lying about BMIs etc. Much better to direct the jabs to those who need them rather than letting them all be used up by women with money and eating disorders.

That would be heartless and unethical! She would have died without treatment.

So you would prefer your taxes pay towards the far far far higher costs of long term nhs care, medications and benefits? That's weird of you.

I would much prefer that people need less support over their lifetime and are able to lead full lives and pay taxes too.

But they're not are they? The people who say they want to lie are always told not to.

You don’t need HRA ethics for a real world service evaluation like this - so not relevant. It’s not classified as a research trial

I agree entirely. But given her attitude, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did think that. And she wouldn’t be alone on here in her loathing of obese people, to be fair

According to the article, the trial will only include a fraction of people who would be eligible for this treatment. I interpret that as meaning they will be ring-fencing people who are eligible and off work, and monitoring whether they a. lose weight and b. get back into the workplace.

There are plenty of people who are eligible but who are managing to work despite their health conditions, who won't be included.

Presumably people on the trial will know the aim of it is to get them back into work, and will be happy with this aim, so the results will be biased in favour of success,

People who are happy not working won't be on the trial, so money isn't going to be wasted on this method of getting them into the workplace. A future outcome might be that, if the trial is successful, people whose reason for being off work is obesity-related might be forced to accept treatment or lose benefits, but I doubt that because there will always be reasons people can give for not accepting treatment - they'd only have to say they were suffering side-effects (real or not) and they'd be taken off it.