Weighing the costs

It may well not be the acme of “Britishness” to talk about other people’s bodyweight, but this country requirements to have an grownup conversation about its weight problems issue. A Freedom of Details request sent by this newspaper to all NHS trusts has exposed that in the past three many years some £5.5 million has been invested on widening doors and buying unique hoists, chairs and sticks for individuals who weigh up to 60 stone. A single believe in had to spend £80,000 widening corridors another paid £15,000 for a specific cooling system for the bodies of deceased obese patients.

We recite these figures not just to highlight the value to the NHS of this obesity crisis – although it comes in at an estimated £5.1 billion every single 12 months. What also actually issues is the cost in terms of human lives. Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief health-related officer for England, just lately wrote that close to ten per cent of deaths in England and Wales are the end result of excess excess weight. Additionally, she warned that weight problems has turn out to be normalised, that many do not recognise that they have a challenge to encounter.

Britain, as politicians are currently keen to remind us, has a tradition of leaving the person alone. But this problem has to be addressed. There are aspects of lifestyle exactly where life-style falls within the purview of the state. It is correct that colleges should make physical exercise a important portion of their curriculum and that the foods dished out in their canteens need to be healthful. The Government can also, as it is presently striving to do, work with food manufacturers to reduce excess fat and sugar content material in their goods. But what is needed most of all is a culture shift that sees people consider accountability for their health and do the appropriate factors to boost it – for their sake, and for the sake of the society that will select up the tab when items go wrong.

Weighing the costs