Popular health classes for the overweight

GPs have referred five times as many overweight patients as expected to NHS exercise and cookery classes this year.

So far, they have urged 50,000 people to take part in the NHS scheme designed to ward off diabetes when the target was just 10,000.

Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, said the scheme was being expanded in an effort to prevent a tide of ill-health caused by overindulgence.

A staggering 500 people a day develop type 2 diabetes, a condition which can usually be prevented by eating less, but its complications – such as blindness, amputation and kidney failure – cost the NHS billions of pounds a year to treat.

A national diabetes prevention programme began last year with the aim of reaching 100,000 people annually by 2020. Mr Stevens hopes to reach 200,000 next year after the scheme proved more popular than expected. More than 18,000 patients have already completed courses this year.

GPs offer blood tests to those they feel are most at risk and offer them courses of 13 classes on healthy eating and keeping fit.

Similar schemes around the world have been shown to cut new cases of diabetes by about a quarter, potentially saving the NHS around £45million a year.