GPs must TELL patients they’re fat and prescribe weight-loss classes – to ‘SAVE the NHS billions’
Experts say the long-term savings in reducing heart disease, diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses would save the NHS billions each year
GPs should offer free Weight Watchers and Slimming World classes to millions of fat Brits.
A study found overweight patients who enrolled on the slimming courses shed 10lbs - almost a stone - of flab.
One Oxford University expert said helping all 11 million obese adults would slash heart disease and high blood pressure cases by more than a fifth by 2035.
And it would cut diabetes numbers by a sixth.
Experts found each intervention took family medics just 30-seconds at the end of their consultation.
Writing in the Lancet, researchers said GPs should stop worrying about offending tubby Brits – with only one in 500 unhappy about discussing their weight.
It cost the NHS £52 to send each patient on a 12-week course – normally run by Slimming World or Weight Watchers.
If all obese Brits were treated in England it would cost the health service around £570 million.
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But experts said it would still save the NHS cash in the long-run. And it is much cheaper than offering drugs to help weight-loss.
Lead researcher Professor Paul Aveyard said the scheme was “practical and effective” – and should be routinely offered by GPs too all obese patients.
He said: “The intervention did the trick. It’s something that should be offered to anybody who is overweight and attends their GP.
“On average, people consult their doctor five times a year meaning there is huge opportunity to deliver this low cost intervention on a large scale.
“There would be long-term savings if you can prevent people having expensive illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.”
Diabetes alone costs the NHS £10 billion a year.
The study involved 137 GPs, who challenged almost 1,900 patients about their weight during routine consultations.
After being weighed, half were advised to sign up for slimming classes, while the rest were just given advice.
The intervention did the trick. It’s something that should be offered to anybody who is overweight and attends their GP
Professor Paul Aveyard
Those attending the courses were 10lbs lighter a year on.
Even those given guidance only shed 2lbs.
Currently GP referrals to fat loss programmes are “rare”.
Many family doctors avoid blame a lack of time or fear of causing offence for not intervening.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said GPs should stop making excuses and refer fat Brits to slimming programmes.
He said: “It appears that talking to patients in the right way, even for half a minute, does the trick and one has to ask why a similar study was not done a generation ago.
“Family doctors should take action to prevent obesity and weight-related health problems that clog up their waiting rooms".
A quarter of Brits are obese. Being too heavy increases the chances of type 2 diabetes, heart, liver disease and several cancers.
Dr Imran Rafi, from the Royal College of GPs, said: “Obesity related conditions – which are continuing to rise across the UK - cost the NHS billions every year, and if this scheme is low cost and effective, which this research claims it is, it makes sense to consider it on a wider scale.”