Medics claim a wave of young healthy women are needing A&E care after taking appetite suppressing Ozempic and Wegovy bought online under false pretences.
It comes as the NHS’s top doctor issued a warning that the powerful drugs are only designed to help diabetics and the obese and shouldn’t be abused by holidaymakers trying to get ‘beach-body ready’.
Emergency medics, who spoke anonymously, warned they are seeing cases of ‘young, beautiful girls’ who were not overweight with complications from abusing the drugs ‘almost every shift’.
Both Ozempic and Wegovy contain semaglutide which can help people lose weight by mimicking an appetite suppressing hormone.
While effective, the drugs are increasingly being used by normal and even underweight people without a clinical need for them, with potentially serious consequences.
Ozempic and Wegovy work by mimicking a hormone that tells the body its full suppressing appetite and it is suggested this triggered the girl’s health problems
The Boots website for Wegovy prescriptions says patients can get a clinical review on their case within ‘as little as 24 hours’
Young women are believed to obtaining the drug via online pharmacies, who offer them at between £150 to £200 per month after providing false information about their appearance and health.
Medics, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, recently highlighted such case where a ‘young girl’ had ended up in A&E from taking the drug under these circumstances.
They said the patient attended A&E feeling ‘feeling unwell, like she was going to pass out and couldn’t stand up… she was really struggling to eat’ according to the medic who spoke to the pharmacy website Chemist and Druggist.
She was reportedly not overweight ‘at all’ but had managed to secure a month’s worth of Wegovy, the semaglutide formulation specifically for weight-loss, for about £150.
The girl, whose age was not disclosed, was treated for ‘starvation ketoacidosis’ a potentially life-threatening problem caused by extended fasting and where harmful substances called ketones build-up in the body.
Medics who reported the girl’s case claimed this is just the latest in a growing pattern of similar incidents where patients who shouldn’t have had the drug have needed emergency medical care.
They added that in many cases the patient had managed to get the drugs from an online pharmacy or private beauty clinic.
‘Without fail, none of them would fit the criteria at all,’ they claimed.
Another alarming case involved a patient who had suffered acute pancreatitis after obtaining the weight loss jabs, and ‘ended up going to intensive care’.
Under NHS guidelines only patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 35, or a BMI of 30 and at least one weight related health problem like high blood pressure, should be prescribed Wegovy.
While private prescribers aren’t bound by this, they still need to follow general professional guidelines and consider national guidance to ensure only patients that need the drug get access to it.
However, the medic who reported the girls case said this isn’t happening and if the pattern continued a patient death was almost inevitable.
While in theory patients need to provide photos and can have their GP informed of their prescription when getting it from an online prescriber the medic said these supposed safeguards are being circumvented.
The medic reported that patients are doctoring photos and time-poor GPs don’t have time to raise the alarm if a patient, who they may not have seen, obtains a Wegovy prescription.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis (pictured), medical director at NHS England, warned the drugs can be dangerous and were not a ‘quick fix’ for people who ‘just want to lose a few pounds’
‘Boots asks for a photo of you, but obviously I could put any photo of an overweight person on,’ they told the website.
‘And then they also asked for your GP’ as a ‘safety mechanism’ – but ‘GPs are currently under a huge amount of strain [so] I can’t imagine that they’re going through all these,’ they claimed.
A Boots spokesman, responding to the claims, said they were concerned to hear about the case and would like to ‘investigate fully’ and have encouraged the medic or patient in this case to get in touch.
They also insisted that ‘patient safety is our number one priority’ and that it has a ‘number of safeguards in place’ for its online weight loss services.
This includes ‘answering questions on their medical and psychological history and supplying a photograph’ as well as Boots ‘informs each patient’s GP of the prescription as an additional safety measure and may contact the patient’s GP if required’.
Dr Vicky Price, a consultant in acute medicine and president-elect of the Society for Acute Medicine, added that had also seen an influx of young girls in A&E suffering side-effects from the drugs.
She added: ‘Almost every shift I’ve done recently has seen a complication from a young girl taking the new weight-loss drugs that they’ve bought from an online pharmacy. None have been overweight.’
Brits illegitimately obtaining, and using, Ozempic and Wegovy, was also recently highlighted by NHS England’s medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis.
He warned the drugs can be dangerous and were not a ‘quick fix’ for people who ‘just want to lose a few pounds’.
Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester yesterday, Sir Stephen said: ‘We know these new drugs will be a powerful part of our arsenal dealing with obesity – but they should not be abused.
‘Buying medication online without a doctor’s supervision can lead to complications and dangerous consequences. Drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy should only be used by people prescribed them for obesity or diabetes. I’m worried about reports that people are misusing them – they are not intended as a quick fix for people trying to get “beach-body ready”.’
Ministers have pinned hopes of using weight-loss jabs like Wegovy to tackle Britain’s bulging obesity crisis and get more Brits back into work.
However, critics say we are at risk of over-medicalising obesity instead of addressing the poor diet and lack of exercise that triggers the condition in the first place.
There have also been concerns about potential side effects from the drugs and the fact patients prescribed it will have to take the jabs for life to keep the weight off.
Source: Mail Online
