The fat epidemic

Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and putting a massive burden on the health service.

The number of patients admitted to hospital suffering from obesity has rocketed by 41 per cent in five years, Government figures show.

Prescriptions for a drug which helps such people lose weight have shot up more than 300 per cent in the last four years.

The cost of the problem to the NHS and therefore to the taxpayer is said to be at least £500million a year, and rising.

The figures were uncovered by Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow, who has accused ministers of failing to appreciate the harm being done to the health of the nation.

He wants to see greater co-operation between Government departments leading to more active promotion of a healthy lifestyle.

‘The epidemic of obesity that is spreading across the country is costing the lives of countless individuals and costing the NHS millions,’ he said.

‘The scale of the problem has been underplayed by ministers.

‘Lack of exercise combined with a diet of fast food is leading to adults and children unable to enjoy a decent quality of life.’

Lifestyle changes were the key to ensuring that Britain did not become ‘inactive, overweight and increasingly reliant on drugs to literally reduce the size of this problem’.

Britain already tops the European obesity league table, and the number of Britons with weight problems has trebled in the last 20 years as junk food diets and couch-potato lifestyles take their toll.

Around 20 per cent of men are classed as obese, and a further 50 per cent are overweight.

Among women, 24 per cent are obese and 33 per cent overweight.

Evidence of the growing numbers being treated for complications caused by their weight emerged in a Parliamentary answer to the LibDem health spokesman.

It showed that in 1997/98, 810 people across England were treated in hospital for obesity.

By 2001/02 this had increased to 1,148.

The biggest increase was in the North West, which saw diagnoses of obesity rise by a staggering 90 per cent.

In London, cases rose by 68 per cent, and in the Northern and Yorkshire region by 59 per cent.

Obesity is linked to a number of health problems including diabetes, osteoarthritis, heart disease, strokes and certain cancers.

Cancer Research UK recently warned that overweight and obese people can expect their lives to be up to seven years shorter than those of thinner people, official figures also reveal that prescriptions for Xenical, also known as Orlistat, to people diagnosed with obesity and related health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, have shot up.

The drug works by stopping the body absorbing fat in the gut, and is proven to lead to an 11 per cent weight loss over seven months.

In 1999 — the first full year it was available — 127,800 prescriptions were handed out.

But by 2002 this had ballooned to 541,400 — an increase of nearly 324 per cent.
The increase in the last year alone was 30 per cent, the figures showed.

A year’s supply of Xenical costs around £537.

A Department of Health spokesman yesterday insisted that the prevention and management of obesity were at the heart of the Government’s priorities.

‘These recognise that the best long-term approach is prevention, and critical to this is improving diet — including reducing intakes of fat and added sugars — and increasing physical activity levels,’ she said.

‘The Department of Health has asked the National Institute of Clinical Excellence and the Health Development Agency to develop guidance on the prevention and management of obesity.

‘Guidance already exists on identifying and treating obese children, surgery and exercise.’