Letters: the problem with Ozempic

At your service

Sir: National service is a contentious issue with many people including the Armed Forces themselves (‘Identity crisis’, 1 June). National community service might be a far better option whereby everyone reaching the age of 18 would spend a year working in a care home, hospital, day nursery, park, graffiti cleaning, litter clearance and so on – all areas in which help is badly needed.

We have a generation of young people badly affected by Covid isolation and screen addiction and this might help them feel more integrated into society.

The discipline of having to be at work on time every day, the banning of screens during working hours and the realisation that there are many people in the world with problems maybe worse than theirs might equip them rather better for the workplace – which may indeed ultimately include serving with the Armed Forces.

Jenny Fitz Gerald

Gascony

Fat chance

Sir: Max Pemberton was absolutely right when it comes to the cost of the weight-loss drug Ozempic (‘Tipping the scales’, 1 June). While drugs can be helpful for obese individuals in the short term, a pharmaceutical approach to obesity is not just incredibly expensive, it is also impractical and illogical in the long term. The combination of near infinite and constantly evolving demand, allied to finite funding, and uncertain and unclear aspirations will challenge any healthcare system. Drugs are not always the solution.

Sir David Haslam, former chair, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice)

Martinstown, Dorset

Sir: I share Martin Vander Weyer’s concerns regarding diminishing corporate sponsorship of cultural exhibitions (Any Other Business, 1 June). I have enjoyed countless excellent exhibitions over the past 30 years or so, and have been too busy admiring world-class works to take much notice of who sponsored them. I can’t say I’ve ever felt the need to fill up with a particular fuel or change banks because of an impressive exhibition.