The UK Department of Health and Social Care has issued a national patient safety alert to both NHS and private healthcare providers, instructing them to stop prescribing slimming injections due to shortages of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), including semaglutide, liraglutide, and exenatide. These injections are used to treat diabetes, and the shortages are expected to last until at least mid-2024. The alert emphasises the āserious clinical implicationsā for diabetes patients, and off-label use for obesity management is strongly discouraged.
Given the shortages of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) used to treat diabetes, the government has issued an alert instructing healthcare providers to stop prescribing slimming injections. How might this impact individuals with diabetes and the wider healthcare system?