Time to tackle obesity

THANK you for the article by Tom Volling (24/6) detailing the prevalence of adult obesity throughout the Cairns area.

Prevalence of adult obesity was shown to range from 24.8 per cent up to 38.4 per cent.

I know from Queensland Health’s own published surveys that the adult obesity health problem is even worse further north.

I am a retired public health physician with more than 30 years of experience working with Queensland Health throughout FNQ.

In December 2013, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia’s peak medical research body, published a set of guidelines for the best practice clinical management of overweight or obese adults, children and adolescents.

For the last three years I tried to get the previous Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) board to adopt these standards of clinical practice throughout their services, but they consistently refused.

Implementing the NHMRC guidelines across the Continuity of Care of patients would help to ensure these patients received the same best practice standards of assessment, clinical management, referral and follow up support.

Isn’t this what we the community of FNQ should expect from our health servi-