GPS to refer obese to slimming classes

GPS should be paid to refer obese patients to slimming classes, under guidance for the NHS from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence.

It follows pledges from Boris Johnson to do more to tackle obesity, after becoming convinced that his own excess weight was the reason he became critically ill with Covid-19.

Ministers are now considering ways to tackle the issue, such as banning price promotions such as “buy one, get one free” offers and junk food advertisements. The new proposals say GPS should refer all obese adults to “weight management programmes” within three months of them being measured.

With 29 per cent of adults in England now classed as obese – meaning a body mass index over 30 – it could see 12million people offered help to shed excess weight.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said the move was “a step in the right direction”, but he urged GPS to talk to patients about losing weight earlier on, before they had become obese.

In addition to the 29 per cent obese, 36 per cent of adults are overweight.

Mr Fry said: “The sooner GPS intervene, the better. Ideally, we need GPS to be sending people on for help before they become obese, when their chances of success are higher.”

But GPS said the idea was unworkable, with too few classes available.

Dr Stephanie de Giorgio, a Kent GP, told Pulse magazine: “There aren’t the services to send them to, so that’s not possible without massive investment when you think of the number of patients this is going to involve.”

Dr Mike Smith, a GP in St Albans, Herts, said the “vast majority” of patients offered a referral to weight management services declined it. “If everyone did consent, an already overwhelmed service would be flooded.”