We spend less on obesity despite medical concern

IRELAND spends less on public obesity treatment than any other country in Europe, according to new research.

Campaigners are now calling on the HSE to recognise the problem as a disease.

The Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition & Metabolism (IrSPEN) insisted that the one million people with obesity here were being let down by a major shortage in public treatment.

Speaking in advance of World Obesity Day today, IrSPEN spokesman Professor Carel le Roux said: ‘Those who cannot afford to pay privately have significantly less access to obesity treatment.

‘IrSPEN is calling on the HSE to come into line with all our European partners and to make obesity treatments a part of universal public healthcare.

‘Proven treatments, both surgery and cost-effective medicines, should be available to all based upon need.’

Professor le Roux added that by failing to provide treatments, the HSE ended up paying more for the long-term complications of obesity. ‘The 50,000 Irish children who are already obese need treatment,’ he said.

IrSPEN research found that Ireland’s public health system has the lowest funding per capita for obesity treatment in Europe. This is because the HSE fails to recognise obesity as a chronic disease, it said.

The professor and IrSPEN member Helen Heneghan, who works as a consultant surgeon at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, said: ‘Obesity is a response to biologically determined body weight regulation, and not gluttony or laziness. Relying on willpower and moral strength to change biology has not been an effective management strategy – and resulted in an exponential increase in people with obesity.’

She asked the health service to make drugs and surgery ‘readily available’ to those in need.

Studies last month showed that one in six Irish children are either overweight or obese. The National Children’s Survey 2017-2018 revealed that 19% of girls and 14% of boys, aged between five and 12, exceeded the healthy weight range.

Internationally, the World Obesity Federation is asking the United Nations to declare obesity a disease that requires universal access to treatment in all healthcare systems.

The HSE’s National Obesity Clinical Programme, in conjunction with the Royal College of Physicians, recently hosted an inaugural summer school on improving medical care for people who are overweight.

The recommendations after this included that people attending for medical care can expect their weight to be routinely checked and should get professional and consistent advice on their weight if overweight.

Improved co-ordination to deliver integrated care and services for patients was also recommended.

Make surgery readily available