Birmingham hit by obesity ‘epidemic’
• A 15-month-old baby boy weighing a hefty 3st 3lb became the youngest patient to be treated by obesity doctors at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital.
• West Midlands Ambulance Service was forced to adapt three ambulances to cope with patients weighing more than 19 stone.
• People living near takeaway and junk food shops have a higher level of obesity.
• Some local hospitals have had to buy supersized, reinforced beds and mortuary fridges.
Dr Jayadave Shakher, a consultant who specialises in weight management at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital’s obesity unit, said: “Britain will catch up with America on obesity levels quite soon.
“We have three doctors, dieticians and two surgeons but we are getting two more because of so much demand. Patients are having to wait up to six months for surgery because the number of patients we are getting has increased so much.
“Our most common procedures are a gastric band that restricts food to the stomach and bypass surgery that diverts food away. We also fit gastric balloons in the stomach.
“We have been getting some younger patients referred to us, 16 and 17-year-olds, but more people are being treated because more are aware that these treatments are on offer. We carry out treatments but more needs to be done on prevention in schools at a very early age.”
Guidelines show patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 50 can have surgery on the NHS but Dr Shakher said he was seeing people with a BMI of 70.
Side-effects from being overweight range from diabetes to heart disease, strokes and high blood pressure.
Sandwell health bosses said inactive people were costing them about £4.5 million each year to treat these health conditions – the equivalent of nearly 1,000 hip replacements, five hours’ worth of diabetes treatment and 170,000 GP consultations.
The borough has been told to carry out a new Government plan to improve physical activity in Sandwell, which has 9,000 premature deaths every year.
The number of prescription items dispensed to treat obesity has also increased, by 16 per cent to 1.23 million in 2007, with drugs Sibutramine and Orlistat the most common on the NHS to control feelings about food and prevent fat absorption.
Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust spent £295,000 per year for three years on equipment for obese patients including supersized reinforced beds and mortuary fridges – the highest amount of any hospital in the country.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust has spent £80,000 reinforcing beds, wheelchairs and walking frames.
