Soon you'll get fat jabs for free at the local shopping centre, as per new NHS plan - amid growing alarm over lethal side effects
It comes as the Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the injections were the 'talk of the House of Commons tea rooms'.
The 10-year plan for the health service says there is a need to expand access to weight-loss services and treatments and bring them closer to where patients live and work.
It says the Government will work with industry 'to test innovative models of delivering weight loss services and treatments to patients effectively and safely' in convenient locations, which may include 'on the high street, or at any out-of-town shopping centre'.
Digital-only models, where everything is done and managed online, may also be put in place, the plan says.
Furthermore, companies will not just paid if people lose weight, 'but if that also translates into outcomes that really matter for patients, such as fewer heart attacks, strokes or cancer diagnoses'.
Earlier, Mr Streeting said weight-loss jabs should be available according to need, not the ability to pay.
At the moment, people with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or more, or 30 but with a linked health condition, can be prescribed jabs on the NHS through specialist weight-management services.
Other people are paying hundreds of pounds a month to get the jabs privately.
Mr Streeting told LBC radio: 'Weight-loss jabs are the talk of the House of Commons tea rooms, half my colleagues are on them and are judging the rest of us saying 'you lot should be on them'.
'And the thing is, if you can afford these weight loss jabs, which can be over 200 quid a month, well that's all right for you.
'But most people in this country haven't got a spare two and a half grand a year and often the people who have the worst and most challenging obesity also have the lowest income.
'So I'm bringing to weight loss jabs the principle of fairness which has underpinned the NHS.
'It should be available based on need and not the ability to pay.
'And that's what we're going to do on weight-loss jabs, as well as a number of other things, including people getting more fit, more active, supporting people on diet and nutrition….that's the bit of the weight-loss jab debate that sometimes gets lost.
He said obesity cost the NHS billions a year, adding that taxes have been going 'up and up' to pay for the health service.
But the plans for a greater roll-out of the jabs come amid concerns about rare but potentially deadly side effects.
Last month, the UK medicines regulator launched a probe into the safety of fat jabs after hundreds of users developed pancreatitis, leaving ten dead.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it has received more than 560 reports of people developing an inflamed pancreas after taking so-called 'GLP-1' injections since they were first launched.
The MHRA is now calling for users who are admitted to hospital with pancreatitis to report the side effect to authorities using the regulator's Yellow Card scheme.
Healthcare workers can also submit a report on patients' behalf.
Other data collected by the watchdog has linked 107 fatalities linked to blockbuster weight loss jabs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy.
As anyone can use the system—patients as well as their medics—a death being linked to a specific drug is not proof it was responsible.
The MHRA highlights that some reactions—including fatal ones—may simply be coincidence.
For example, a patient taking a weight loss jab may experience a fatal heart attack, but the event may have nothing to do with the drug they were taking at the time.
Recent estimates suggest that about 1.5 million people in the UK are taking weight loss jabs, many of which are bought privately due to NHS rationing.
Most side effects linked to the jabs are gastrointestinal including nausea, constipation and diarrhoea.
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