Doctors and nurses who are overweight have been ordered to slim down to set a good example to patients amid concerns about the growing obesity epidemic.
Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, gave the instructions after finding out that 700,000 medical staff were eight overweight or obese.
His order came as it emerged that obesity and its related health problems may now account for more than a third of the £110billion NHS budget.
Medical experts claimed overweight Britons could be costing the health service £30 billion a year despite successive campaigns to educate people about healthy eating and exercise.
Mr Stevens said: “It is hard to talk about how important this is if we don’t get our act together.”
Two thirds of British adults are now classed as overweight while a quarter are obese, meaning they weigh at least a fifth more than they should.
Being overweight leaves people more vulnerable to a host of health problems all of which place further strain on NHS resources, including Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes and some forms of cancer.
It also increases the likelihood of a person suffering from depression and dementia.
Nearly a fifth of children aged ten and 11 are already obese.
Dr Charles Alessi, a GP and senior health adviser to Public Health England, wants to give doctors new powers to help patients lose weight such as giving out pedometers to highlight how little they exercise.
“We’ve become so much more sedentary. We really don’t move around as much as we used to. I love to be able to prescribe these walking devices,” he said.
“Those could do more good than the prescription of drugs.”
The NHS head seems to think doctors and nurses should be slimming down although i'm not sure what the consequence of ignoring his order would be. It does seem that doctors and nurses trying to give advice regarding weight loss aren't demonstrating good role modelling if they're more rotund (or smoking out the back for example).
Any opinions?
