Justin Tomlinson MP speaks at the event
Justin Tomlinson MP today hosted colleagues at an event to highlight one of Britain’s biggest health epidemics – obesity.
Obesity affects one in four Britons, and is forecast to cost the UK £50bn by 2050, through prescriptions, appointments, hospital admissions, benefits and reduced productivity.
Britain’s true medication bill for obesity could be £10bn more than realised – and a fast growing “super obese” group, currently 100,000 could be eating up £496 million in their own right. Those with a BMI of over 50 cost the NHS a staggering £6100 per year in medication. Much of this cost is due to the serious health conditions connected to obesity, including, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, liver disease and an increased risk of cancer.
The National Obesity Forum raised with MPs the perverse incentive structure that currently governs the treatment of obesity. GPs are rewarded financially for recording the number of obese patients – yet, ironically, not for doing anything about it.
Speaking at the event, Justin Tomlinson MP said “The rates of obesity have soared in the past few years and it has become one of the key public health issues that everybody, from Government to the individual, needs to tackle.
“This is an issue that I have raised a number of times in Parliament since being elected. To tackle obesity effectively, we need a four pronged approach: open space in new developments, clearer food labelling to allow consumers to make informed decisions, basic cookery lessons in schools and for those struggling with obesity, appropriate support.
“Through a number of visits in Swindon I have seen a number of excellent examples of the support programmes on offer, including a recent visit to Slimming World. I was also pleased to speak earlier to Sarah Newman, a Cambridge Weight Plan Consultant from Swindon who works hard to help support those in our town looking to lose weight.”
Justin Tomlinson MP with constituent Sarah Newman of the Cambridge Weight Plan