26 Oct 2024

Weight-loss drug trial for those on the benefit

From Saturday Morning, 7:40 am on 26 October 2024
Britain's Health Secretary Wes Streeting leaves after attending a weekly cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on October 8, 2024. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)

Britain's Health Secretary Wes Streeting leaves after attending a weekly cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on 8 October, 2024. Photo: AFP / HENRY NICHOLLS

England is testing a weight-loss drug to get people off the dole and back to work.

It's a controversial idea said to also prevent obesity-related diseases and take the pressure off England's health service.

The UK's health secretary Wes Streeting has denied the five-year trial in Manchester in the North West of England is in any way dystopian, or will see overweight people being forced to have the weight-loss drug Mounjaro.

Obesity expert at the University of Cambridge Dr Dolly van Tulleken spoke to Susie about the ethics of it and says it is unrealistic.