Obesity ambulances are NOT the answer

SOARING rates of obesity have meant the NHS has had to invest in super-size ambulances for overweight patients, it was reported this week.

Hospitals have also had to bring in reinforced beds and stretchers while the category ‘bariatric person’ has been added to the Fire Brigade’s Incident Reporting System for call-outs to help obese patients stuck in their homes.

In an incident in South Wales, two walls of a house had to be demolished so an obese teen- ager could be taken to hospital: more than 40 emergency services workers were involved at an estimated cost of £100,000. This is the inevitable result of years of our failing to tackle the real reason so many are obese — psychological issues with food.

Yet the NHS offers pitiful little to help these patients, and just waits until crisis point. But if we’re going to tackle the obesity crisis, we need psychological services to help overweight patients, not bariatric surgery and reinforced ambulances.