This kind of spending cannot be sustained and could go on to cripple the NHS which is already facing a famine in funding over the next seven years due to the recession.
Whoever wins the next election all main political parties are committed to making cuts in public services. So with harsh budget cuts on the horizon we simply can't sustain a creaking system and patients must take more responsibility for their health.
The best way to save the NHS money is for fewer people to need its services - it is as simple as that.
Lifestyle
What I am discussing is the elephant in the room but we cannot get away from the fact that, for the most part, obesity is the result of dietary and lifestyle choices.
Many NHS trusts have seen spending on obesity increase more than seven-fold in just three years.
The irony is that despite all the healthcare campaigns we are becoming less effective at preventing obesity.
Obesity and lack of exercise are the prime causes of many common diseases. Several types of cancer strike the inactive and the obese at a higher rate. Type 2 diabetes, which leads to heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney failure and erectile dysfunction is at epidemic proportions and is primarily a disease of the obese. And we're seeing it occurring in younger and younger people.
The problems start at the earliest stages of life. We have evidence to prove how excessive weight gain in the first three months of life is linked to cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes in early adulthood. Yet, breast-feeding, which often prevents early and dangerous weight gain, just isn't as popular as we might have hoped.
Of course we know that many of the factors leading to obesity are societal. For example, the mother who picks up hungry kids from day-care after working eight hours can be very tempted to stop at a fast-food outlet on her way home. In the old days, evening walks and chats with neighbours used to satisfy people's evening leisure needs, but now our reliance on sedentary activity, watching the TV and working on computers has reached epic proportions.
Illnesses
I need to emphasise that the link between obesity and preventable illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, is irrefutable as I'm sure there will be those that will say I am unfairly targeting a sector of society.
In England, almost two-thirds of adults and a third of children are either overweight or obese. Without effective action this could rise to nine in 10 adults and two-thirds of children by 2050.
It is estimated that the cost of obesity to the NHS in England in 2007 was £4.2bn and would rise to £6.3bn in 2015.
I would estimate that something like 50 per cent to 70 per cent of my patients' medical costs would not just be reduced but eliminated if their diets were healthier and they exercised more.
But we, as a nation, seem to be working on the other end of the problem. For example, motorised scooters are provided free to morbidly obese patients with weight-dependent arthritis, when the best remedy for these people would be to walk through their pain or avoid excess weight gain in the first place.
School lunches are often made up of very fattening, but tasty, food. There is too much focus on league tables and not enough on teaching children basic cooking skills.
So how do we save money on healthcare? We need to get out the old carrot and stick. How about a tax credit for those with a body-mass index (measure of weight to height) of less than 26? (A BMI of 30 or over is considered obese). Or what about rewarding mothers who breast-feed for the first four months of their baby's life?
Or perhaps a credit for documented miles on a treadmill or a bicycle? Or a tax on fattening foods with little nutritional value, as others have suggested?
Barring genetic or catastrophic disease, accidents and maybe the ageing process itself, our health is in our hands. Promoting knowledge about diet and exercise and taking responsibility for our own lifestyle choices are the best ways to cut down on healthcare costs.
Dr Chand is chairman of the NHS Tameside and Glossop Tweet
Comments
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Tax is not the way forward though Dr Chand. in recent years our government has used tax to try and get rid of certain other things in our society and all its really been there for is to generate more money for themselves.
Alcohol, fuel, smoking and large cars. all things that a large majority probably use. therefore an easy way to generate more income to cover their expenses and the large debt they've put on this country.
taxing food would only add to the burden on our lives.
but it wouldnt help our health.
I am sick and tired of this guy. Either become a politician and give up medicine or stick to beign a Doctor. He is always spouting off in the Tameside Advertiser
Firstly, having worked in the NHS and having seen the vast amounts of cash getting urinated up a rope, you could comfortably cut the NHS budget by 20-30% with zero effect on frontline services. Probably hit 50% if the NHS adopted sensible managerial and project management systems, both of which tend to be a joke.
Secondly, if Dr Chand and others are so concerned about the budget, they can go back to the negotiating table and take a paycut. Given the rather large boost they gained a few years back, not a big deal, and hey, the medical professions a calling isn't it?
Thirdly, the obese already pay more tax, as they eat more. Unhealthy lifestyle choices more than fund the NHS, and were everyone to suddenly stop smoking, boozing and eating unhealthy foods there would be a hole in the tax receipts the size of the Grand Canyon.
And given the various goings in the Tameside PCT over the last few years - some of which made the front page of the MEN - maybe the chairman of NHS Tameside and Glossop ought to have bigger fish to fry.
I see he makes no mention of the amount the NH spend on addicts, drunks, immigrants etc - most of whom have paid nothing into the system.
Like somebody says, either become a politician or shut it.
So now we are expected to live in a perfect society. Nobody get ill, when children are born they are either aryan, pure african, or asian and chinese. Better still Half Aryan mix or indo-chinese. GP become surplus to requirement. Majority of Hospitals will be demolished for housing. You will no longer need fit clubs or or health spas as your already born healthy. Utopia have problems as well, because having fit and healthy people reproducing constantly, you will have to introduce eugenics to filter the gene pool of un-natural people. Brave New World. Better to educate early.
Modern living also helps employ Doctors that we wouldn't need if someone put the food and beverage companies in their place regarding what go's in that causes illness.
Anyway, Mimmic of the year award to Dr Chand.
The majority of people this effects, are the sit at home and watch jeremy Kyle types!! Half of them would not know what a fruit or vegetable was if they fell over one. Then when they reach the point of obesity they are prone to so many other illnesses such as diabetes etc they just sit back and claim more benefits for being ill. Don't get me wrong, I sympathise with people who have genuine health problems which are no fault of their own. But I have no sympathy for the people who self inflict poor health on themselves when all they need to do is eat a balanced diet and exercise. On that note I'm off for a KFC!!
As a currently overweight, nay, obese bloke who has oscillated between 12 and 21 stone during his adult life, I think the key to helping people lose weight is making them feel better about themselves. Larger people often suffer low self-esteem, especially if (as I was) they were overweight in their childhood and adolescence. Being the object of ridicule by your peers and having members of the opposite sex pour scorn on your as a potential partner can damage your self-worth for years.
So instead of demonising the obese, society as a whole should value larger people for who they are rather than how they look. And once they feel better about themselves, many of them will be far more minded to tackle their weight problem.
nightlight, Salford
How much do smokers cost the NHS ?
How much do drinkers cost the NHS?
How much do blameworthy road traffic accidents cost?
What about anorexics ?
What does other peoples negligence cost?
How much does the NHS actually waste?
Rather than be punitive to and single out individual groups, lets just allow free health care, paid in taxes,direct or indirect on drink, food, cigarettes and insurance policies, or scrap the system altogether and traet only those that have paid an insurance policy.