CALLS have been made by MPs for action to halt an alarming rise in deaths from obesity.
The Commons public accounts committee warned the government that, without effective action, more than 20 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women could be rated as obese within three years.
‘‘Obesity causes much human suffering by contributing to chronic disease and premature death and costs the NHS a substantial amount,’’ the MPs said. ‘‘It is linked to 30,000 deaths a year and shortens people’s lives by nine years on average.
‘‘On a conservative basis, it costs the NHS at least £500m a year in patient care and £2bn to the wider economy, for example in sickness absence.’’
The committee chairman, Tory MP Edward Leigh, said he found the death rate ‘‘truly shocking’’ and was deeply concerned about its rapid increase.
‘‘There are worrying variations in the way this problem is tackled, from access to school sports to the way in which GPs deal with patients,’’ he said.
Approach
‘‘We need more effective responses from the NHS at all levels, and all the government bodies involved must work together in a much more co-ordinated way.’’
The committee found that the causes of obesity were many and varied region by region. They found the help provided to sufferers by the NHS was ‘‘patchy’’.
‘‘Part of the answer lies in helping people avoid becoming overweight and then obese, as much as helping those who are already obese,’’ said the MPs.
They called on health chiefs in each region to draw up a plan of action for health care, education, transport, sport and recreation and the labelling and marketing of food.
They also said it was urgent to provide money to achieve the government’s target of providing children with two hours’ physical exercise a week, adding that different schools offered dramatically different opportunities for sport.
The MPs, including Tatton Tory MP George Osborne, said it was important to develop more cycling paths and to allow cycles to be put on trains, and they called for more helpful labelling of food.
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