King Charles's doctor warns Ozempic could make NHS 'less sustainable'

King Charles's doctor has warned that using Ozempic for weight loss places a greater burden on the NHS by discouraging personal responsibility in favour of 'medicalising everything'.

Dr Michael Dixon, an NHS GP who became Head of the Royal Medical Household when Charles became king, is disheartened by the growing demand for weight-loss jabs, believing that 'the more we go down this Ozempic route, the more we're saying, 'It's not my responsibility, give me the injection, give me the pill'.

Dr Dixon, 72, argues that prescribed drugs should be replaced by moving care back into communities and taking a more holistic approach to problems such as obesity.

He also thinks it is 'madness' that one in six UK adults is on antidepressants: a figure he partly blames on the pressure GPs are under. 

'If you only have five or ten minutes per appointment, it's far easier for me to give you Prozac, than to start talking about life stresses, work and all the rest of it.'

Speaking to The Times, Dr Dixon – who has sometimes been mocked for his support of alternative medicine – said: 'The endgame is the community looking after itself and individuals looking after themselves. 

'The more we are dependent on professionals, on Ozempic, on everything else, the less self-dependent we become and the less sustainable the health service becomes.'

Dr Dixon's warning comes as it was revealed the number of hospital admissions for bad reactions to weight-loss drugs is more than four times higher than previously thought.

Last month, the medicines regulator said there had been 68 UK hospitalisations associated with 'miracle' weight-loss jabs such as Ozempic, used to treat obesity and diabetes.

But now it has emerged that the figure is far higher at 274, while the number of adverse reactions linked to the drugs has reached an astonishing 14,996, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – more than double the 7,228 reactions reported last month.

The surge in adverse reactions and hospitalisations chiefly involve gastrointestinal side-effects such as nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhoea, the watchdog said.