A wave of healthcare innovation is sweeping across the United Kingdom, as two major NHS initiatives—one in Scotland and another in East Anglia—aim to tackle some of the nation’s most persistent health challenges: obesity, diabetes, and mental health care. Both efforts, though distinct in their focus, highlight the NHS’s commitment to improving patient outcomes and addressing longstanding issues in public health.
In Scotland, a bold new approach is about to launch in the fight against obesity and type 2 diabetes. According to reporting from the Daily Mail on August 16, 2025, thousands of overweight Scots will soon be prescribed low-calorie soups and shakes through the NHS as part of a scheme called Total Diet Replacement. This initiative, which targets patients recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, is set to roll out nationwide from January 2026. About 3,000 eligible patients will receive meal replacement products—soups, shakes, or bars—delivered directly to their homes for an initial period of three to five months. The replacement meals are strictly calorie-controlled, capped at 900 calories a day, with the aim of jumpstarting significant weight loss.
After this initial intensive phase, participants will gradually reintroduce normal foods under the guidance of online consultations and a dedicated app. This digital tool won’t just offer dietary advice; it will also track food and drink intake, weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, and exercise, providing a holistic view of each patient’s progress. The ambition is for patients to lose up to ten percent of their body weight over the year-long program, a change expected to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of related diseases.
Doctors are optimistic about the potential impact. As the NHS described it, this is a “new, high impact technology that could improve patient outcomes and contribute to NHS renewal across Scotland.” The stakes are high: obesity is one of Scotland’s most entrenched health problems, with around a third of the population officially obese and another third overweight. Around 300,000 Scots currently live with type 2 diabetes, a condition closely linked to excess weight and associated with increased risks of heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, and nerve problems.
The Scottish Government expects the program to deliver significant results. A spokesperson explained, “The programme will be used to support 3,000 people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over the next three years, with the first recruited in January 2026. We anticipate that around 35 to 40 percent will achieve remission from type 2 diabetes at the end of their first year on the programme, with a majority of patients benefiting from a clinically significant average weight loss of 10 percent and reductions in blood pressure, all contributing to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. We will measure impact by the number of patients recruited into this programme, the number who achieve remission and the number with clinically significant weight loss.”
The financial calculus is also notable. The scheme is projected to cost £5.6 million for 3,000 patients, or about £1,866 per person—a significant saving compared to the appetite-suppressing drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, which cost around £3,000 per person annually. These so-called “fat jabs,” which have recently garnered celebrity attention from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Elon Musk, and Sharon Osbourne, are now being prescribed at record rates in Scotland—about 10,000 prescriptions a month. However, there are concerns that the benefits of these drugs may only persist as long as patients continue taking them, whereas the diet replacement program aims to foster lasting lifestyle changes.
Meanwhile, in East Anglia, the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has received its best marks in a decade following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of its community and crisis mental health services. According to local coverage, the inspection—conducted in March 2025—saw community services upgraded to a “good” rating, a step up from its previous status of “requiring improvement.” Patients described staff as “caring, respectful, and inclusive, promoting independence and involving them in their care.” Many also reported feeling safe, confident to raise concerns, and satisfied with how complaints were handled.
However, the CQC found that crisis services, while improved, still require further progress. The report noted that the crisis team was not always able to meet the national standard of assessing emergency referrals within four hours. Patients seeking help through the trust’s 24-hour crisis line—pioneered during the Covid pandemic and now available nationally—faced an average wait time of six minutes, almost two minutes slower than the national average. Staffing shortages contributed to these challenges, with a vacancy rate of 20.2 percent at the time of inspection (though this has since dropped to 11.9 percent). The CQC remarked, “The services did not always deploy sufficient staff in all areas, due to high numbers of vacancies in some teams, though the service was taking action to address this.”
Despite these ongoing issues, staff within the trust continued to earn praise. Inspectors reported, “People told inspectors staff treated them with kindness, respect and offered emotional support. Most people said they felt safe, understood and involved during care and discharge planning.”
Trust leadership welcomed the improved ratings but acknowledged that more work remains. Campaigners, too, remain cautious. A spokesperson for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said, “It’s the first time in a long time the trust is not going backwards in terms of ratings but it is what we expected due to the amount of scaffolding from NHS England and the CQC. With the amount of time, energy, effort, money and resource that has been poured into improvement over the last decade, we had hoped to see this reflected in CQC ratings. However, on the ground and among service users and carers we see and hear of limited materialisation of improvement with people still not receiving effective services, those left in crisis, and unnecessary mental health deaths.”
Recruitment remains a critical focus for the trust. Encouragingly, recent hiring efforts have begun to bear fruit, with some open roles attracting as many as 50 applications. There’s hope that continued improvements will help the trust attract and retain the staff needed to deliver high-quality care across all services.
Both the Scottish and Norfolk-Suffolk initiatives underscore the broader challenges facing the NHS as it seeks to innovate and adapt in the face of rising demand, limited resources, and ever-evolving patient needs. Whether through digital diet programs or improved mental health care, these efforts reflect a determination to break cycles of poor health and deliver better outcomes for some of the UK’s most vulnerable populations.
As these programs take root and evolve, the eyes of the healthcare community—and countless patients—will be watching closely to see if these fresh approaches can deliver the lasting change so urgently needed.
