THE consultant with NHS Dumfries and Galloway comments on Scotland's obesity crisis following the publication of a "fat map", which showed Shetland has the highest proportion of obese patients in Britain.
What public-health messages do we have to start sending out or listening to if we are to tackle obesity?There are two strands to this. People need to take personal responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, but there need
s to be more direct intervention by the government, because the obesity crisis is not being tackled.
What needs to be done to drive down the number of obese people in Scotland?Decades of trying to persuade people to eat less and exercise more just have not worked. I know the government is spending money on preventive measures, but we need to do something about the sheer numbers of obese people. If behaviour and drug therapy, such as that provided by the Counterweight programme, does not work, obese people should be offered gastric surgery.
How does obesity have a domino effect on the NHS?People suffering from obesity also suffer from related complications, such as type-2 diabetes, liver disease, osteoporosis and breathing and gynaecological problems. There would be significant economic savings for the Scottish health service if these people were given gastric surgery, because that not only achieves up to 50 per cent weight loss, it can also even reverse their obese-related conditions.
What do you think of the press coverage on the "fat map" that seems to paint Shetland as the obesity capital of Britain?I thought, on the whole, the reports were reasonably fair and balanced. However, the headlines that suggested Shetland had the most fat people in Britain were wrong. I would not have drawn those geographically based conclusions from the information based in the "fat map" report. People should have taken into account that some doctors were much better than others at registering obese patients.
The full article contains 326 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
