Britain’s fat jab boom revealed as NHS dishes out a prescription every seven seconds amid obesity crisis

A FAT jab prescription was handed out on the NHS every seven seconds last year, research by The Sun has found. GPs signed off weight-busting medications 4,605,058 times in the 12 months to March — the equivalent of a sign-off every 6.85 seconds. A fat jab prescription was handed out on the NHS every seven seconds last year, research by The Sun has found Credit: Getty GPs signed off weight-busting medications 4,605,058 times in the 12 months to March — the equivalent of a sign-off every 6.85 seconds Credit: Getty Doctors authorised 33,520,435 individual doses of GLP-1 treatments such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, which are used to manage both severe obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Our analysis of official NHS prescribing data also found England’s top per-capita hotspot for prescriptions is Doncaster, where one in every 88 people is on taxpayer-subsidised jabs. Sign up for the Health newsletter Thank you! Family doctors in the South Yorkshire city handed out 113,362 prescriptions in a year, costing £14.9million. Darlington, in Co Durham, claimed second place, with one in 89 residents receiving the weight-loss medication. Lancashire seaside town Blackpool followed in third, with one in 101 people on the treatment. Leicester topped the overall volume leaderboard for a single city, racking up 143,789 prescriptions at a total cost of £22.1million. Central London postcodes recorded the lowest NHS prescribing rates — mainly because wealthier patients bypassed long GP waiting lists to buy jabs privately. Fat jab spending hit £706.4million for Mounjaro and Wegovy medications over the period. Most read in Health Around 380,000 patients across England are now thought to get fat jabs through the NHS. GPs began prescribing Mounjaro for weight loss last summer, and studies suggest it can also reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Weight-loss jabs have previously wiped an estimated £780million from Britain’s grocery bills, with one in six households now having at least one user. Comment now