£14billion

Huge sum the NHS is forced to spend EVERY year on Britain’s crippling obesity epidemic

BRITAIN’S bulging waistline is stripping billions of pounds from the NHS each year with twice as much spent on obese patients than those of a healthy weight, a landmark study revealed yesterday.

Costs per patient rise drastically the more people weigh, as they ‘collect obesity-related conditions’ such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease, according to research involving millions of Britons.

The findings lay bare the enormous strain of obesity on NHS finances, suggesting the health service would stand to save up to nearly £14billion annually if people maintained a healthy weight.

And the full cost to the economy is far greater still, once work days lost to obesity-related illness are factored in.

Imperial College London researchers tracked 2.4million adults in London for a decade, analysing how many hospital admissions, GP appointments, and prescriptions they needed each year.

Of these, a million patients who were a healthy weight with a body mass index (BMI) of 18 to 25 were calculated to cost the NHS an average of £638 each in 2019, the final year of the study.

By comparison, those with a BMI of 40 and above cost more than double at £1,375 annually. The NHS spent £979 a year on obese patients with a BMI of 30 to 35, increasing to £1,178 for those with a BMI of 35-40. Overall, 400,002 patients were classed as obese, with another million classed as overweight with a BMI of 25 to 30.

Those who were overweight cost on average £756 a year – 19 per cent more than those who were ‘healthy’. Dr Jonathan PearsonStuttard, a public health scientist based at Imperial College London and head of health analytics at the LCP consultancy who led the study, said it was the first of this scale to calculate costs based on BMI. It found as weight increased, use of healthcare resources rose incrementally, with hospital admissions ‘by far the biggest cost’.

‘These costs are not just from living with obesity, but all the different conditions it results in,’ he said. ‘People collect more obesityrelated conditions over time. We know obesity can cause a range of hospitalisations including heart attacks, stroke, heart failure. It also increases the risk of cancers.

‘The ill-health and costs associated with obesity compound over time. Not only is that impacting individual health, but also costs to the NHS and economic workforce.’

Participants in the study were weighed when they enrolled. The costs associated with obesity increased significantly over the ten-year period – by 34 per cent for the most severely obese.

Latest NHS data shows 26 per cent of adults in England are obese and a further 38 per cent are overweight. Using average figures from the study suggests that when at the peak of treatment, 28.1million people with a BMI above 25 could cost the NHS £23.8billion annually. This compares to £10.1billion spent on those who are a healthy weight – a difference of £13.7bn.

Presenting their findings at the

European Congress on Obesity in Dublin, researchers said it demonstrates the importance of preventing the overweight becoming obese, as well as stopping people gaining weight in the first place.

Dr Pearson- Stuttard added: ‘Two of the biggest challenges for the UK economy is reducing demand on the health system, and increasing economic productivity.

‘Tackling obesity could really move the needle on both. People with obesity have quite predictable complications, but if you can control their weight and the risk of conditions, you will dramatically reduce demand for health services.

‘Obesity is a big reason behind the rise in long-term sickness and inactivity in the UK workforce.

‘Preventing someone who is in obesity class 1 (BMI 30-35) from moving to class 2 (BMI 35-40), would clearly have health benefits and reduce costs. Focusing on prevention of obesity complications, through medications such as statins, is also important.’

NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: ‘The NHS has rolled out a Digital Weight Management Programme, which has already helped over 200,000 people living with obesity... but the need for wider societal action on obesity is clear.’

Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: ‘The food industry makes vast profits flooding our food environment with unhealthy food, and then passing the cost to our NHS. Government must step in and make sure the healthy choice is the easy choice for everyone.’

‘Increases the risk of cancers’

‘Need for wider action in society’