to think more negative effects will come out from Ozempic use?

Oh please, let's stop with the sensible, measured response, thank you Madam.

It's much more fun watching people struggling to articulate and debate on a subject they don't appear to know anything about.

But like me wandering into a conference of cardiologists and giving them the benefit of my zero knowledge of heart function.

Pages and pages of concern over a tiny number of people prescribed WLI by a legitimate pharmacy, when they didn’t meet criteria. Pages of how it should be more difficult to legitimately obtain the drug - thus pricing lots of people out if the drug price increases to meet costs of prescribing in person.
But not one person concerned about the large number of people obtaining ‘WLI’ from Sally on Facebook marketplace. Buying and injecting god knows what.
But it’s the legitimate users that apparently should be targeted - odd that…

I respect your opinion but I don't think the morning after pill or viagra has the same potentially serious side effects for people using them who don't actually need them.

I'm not by the way suggesting that the customers would have to pay more for in person consultations, more that the private prescribers could offer it for the initial consultation seeing as they are making an awful lot of money from selling these drugs. Maybe it would be more ethnical if they knew they were prescribing it only to people who met the criteria? Definitely don't want to make things harder for obese people for no good reason.

@Arraminta
Some months ago, I got into a debate with another 'pharmacist' on one of these threads. Turned out they thought WLIs contained insulin and we were causing the deaths of T1Ds who couldn't get their meds. I did ask where she worked so I could avoid them but strangely, she just exited the conversation.

In which case, why did she sound like she knew next to nothing about WLI and the procedures surrounding them?

Typically when someone has a professional qualification you can tell they know exactly what they're talking about.

As a pharmacist she will have undergone extensive training so probably does in fact know more about these drugs than the rest of us but you think you know more than a pharmacist so ok.

@KrankyKumquat has made a brilliant response to your post. I can’t add anything more to it.

And you’re not being ‘attacked’. You’re being picked up on for asserting something is the case when actually, you’ve no experience or knowledge of it. That’s a pretty silly thing to so when you’re attempting to debate something.

So, where will all these thousands and thousands of retail units suddenly appear from? Because they would need to be suitable for purpose, in suitable locations in areas that are convenient for both the pharmacy staff and patients. Parking would be a consideration as would proximity to other local pharmacies (I recall that you can only have a certain number of pharmacies in the locale?).

And where would all the thousands and thousands of trained and qualified pharmacy staff suddenly appear from?

Have you ever considered trying critical thinking or critical analysis when approaching a problem? Just wittering about how it makes you 'feelz' is pointless.

Wow, this is a whole new level of hysteria about these medications.

What we do know is that the vast majority of people legitimately prescribed WLIs use them as prescribed, by reputable, professional and ethical pharmacies either online or in person, with very few if any side effects (and most of these are mild gastrointestinal ones like constipation or diarrhea which can be easily sorted with otc medications). Yes, like most medications, there are some contraindications and, sadly, a very, very small number of people will develop more serious complications from using them. Many of these people would have developed these if they'd lost significant weight in the traditional way (eg gallstones and pancreatitis). And yes, like laxatives, water tablets and certain cough remedies, WLI, obtained illegally, can be misused by people with eating disorders or who don't meet the current BMI restrictions (but at least you can't get them from the counter in Tesco's, eh?).

The prescribing guidelines are strict and pharmacies are falling over themselves to find ways to further tighten their procedures to lock out misusers and to safeguard their patients. My own uses videos consultations. It's in their business interests to do so, they'll soon get shut down if they prescribe irresponsibly.

Yet it's not enough apparently. Some people, who have shown here they actually know very little about how the current set-up actually works, want users to pay for in-person consults with Boots or Bupa or wherever - I'm sure companies like these are salivating every time there's another misinformed scare story in the Daily Mail.

Honestly, you'd think we were discussing synthetic heroin or barbiturates or DIY chemotherapy or something. Christ, you don't even need a doctor's appointment to get the morning after pill or Viagra now. So why are some people so determined to make life even more difficult than it already is for obese people (just to protect someone who shouldn't be taking the drug anyway? Really? I call BS)

As I said before I'm not discussing personal information with you, beyond what I already mentioned early on in the thread.

I'm allowed to have an opinion without being attacked & lots of people on this thread have commented that people do get prescribed weight loss drugs who shouldn't be. Even people in support of the current model have made the observation that some people lie to get them so hardly an unusual point of view.

I don't think 'the pharmacist' was contributing anything to the conversation which made me confident that they actually knew what they were talking about?

No, I mean recently. Since the prescribing rules were changed.

You aren’t making yourself look good by saying you think the process of obtaining WLI is too easy, when in fact, you don’t have any idea what the process involves.

I actually mentioned on page 3 of this thread that I had tried Ozempic so obviously I do have some idea of how hard or rather how easy it was to get a prescription from a private pharmacy.

You're not making yourself look very good with the way you talk to people.

The truth is, you haven’t actually got a clue what the process is, have you? You’ve got no idea how difficult (or not) it is to obtain a prescription for a WLI.

I’m not discussing personal medical information with you.

No of course not, any changes to the current model will be based on a lot of research and evidence not on my feelings or your feelings or any one person.

How do you know what the process involves? When was the last time you attempted to buy WLI online?

It’s not just people being sharp with me though is it? It’s people being sharp with OP, with the pharmacist that could have contributed a lot to the discussion if they weren’t shut down and @Mrsredlipstick who is now begging people to stop berating her.

Thankfully any further changes to guidelines won't be based on any one individual's feelings, without evidence and without considering what is a proportionate response to that evidence.

Fair enough I respect your opinion but my feeling is that it’s too easy at the moment for people to lie, present false information etc

People are sharp with you because your ideas are ridiculous and you just don’t seem to be able to understand what people are telling you.

If the NHS are unable to staff the roll out of this medication to include in person support, why would private pharmacies? Where would all these staff members come from who were trained to issue prescriptions? How would that affect the cost of the (already very expensive) drug? How long would it take and how many people would die from obesity related diseases whilst this was all put into place?

I don’t understand why you think it should be made far more difficult to obtain legitimately and at the same time price people out, all for the small number of people abusing the drug. Those of which who will just buy it on the black market if they can’t get a prescription, anyway.

You've made a lot of assumptions, based on a statement of fact (from various recent clinical trials; I am sure more data will come in over time).

It has been shown that once off the WLI, people put back on roughly 2/3rds of their weight - or more. Which rather suggests that most people will need to stay on the injections for life (whatever the longterm health ramifications might be for that - also unknown as this is a mass experiment on a global scale, really).

I am not thin, and yet I do not relate to what you describe as "the level of cravings and intense hunger OW people deal with everyday".

I am certaintly not suggesting you, or I, or anyone else attempting to lose and stabilise their weight should just "not try". But I prefer to lose weight, even if I don't always keep it off, and have to relose, without risking gastrointestinal distress in the short-term, or long-term gastrointestinal tract damage.

Obviously, if I was morbidly obese, I might think differently about the risks vs benefits.

Why shouldn’t they rent spaces to see people in person if there is a good profit in it for them? That’s how many businesses work though it may take government intervention to tighten up the regulations further around prescribing these drugs only for the people who meet the criteria.

It is clear that only people meeting the prescribing criteria will be prescribed. That's why people know that they have to lie, defraud and present false information in order to try to get a prescription if they don't meet those requirements.

I think that the current model is adequate, and individual pharmacies that don't comply with the guidelines will be inspected and sanctioned, with an improvement plan and follow up inspection. I think requiring more than that, because these medications are highly newsworthy and incite strong responses from people who aren't taking them and don't need them, is an unnecessary overreaction.

There’s a debate to be had about how these drugs could be prescribed in an ethical way to stop people misusing them, people with eating disorders for example. It may be that new clinics dedicated to helping with weight loss would open up to meet the demand. And I don’t agree there will be millions of consultations, I think you’re exaggerating the numbers who would be seeking face to face consultations if it was made clear that only people with a clinical need would be prescribed weight loss drugs.

But I’m not interested in having a debate like that with you because you are very sharp in your responses to people and seem determined to shut down any debate by insulting people.