Obese patients take up extra bed spaces in hospital, require more staff to treat them and need an array of super-strength equipment to withstand their weight as part of their growing burden on the NHS.
Other patients can miss out on treatment because those who are dangerously overweight need two physiotherapists for their session, while fewer beds have been fitted into some wards because obese patients use bigger ones.
Nurses, physios and sonographers, who conduct ultrasound examinations, are suffering injuries as a result of looking after obese patients. The NHS is paying out up to six-figure amounts to settle lawsuits from staff who claim health service managers did not ensure enough staff or extra-strong equipment such as hoists, stretchers and wheelchairs was available to handle and treat the very overweight.
Physiotherapist Marsha Fernihough won £25,000 in damages last year against Warwickshire NHS primary care trust when she ended up unable to work for 17 months and needed two operations after tearing her shoulder when a 20-stone patient fell backwards on to her left arm as she and a colleague were helping him learn to use a walking frame. She has returned to work but can no longer lift heavy items with that arm.
A paramedic sustained a painful back strain when trying to get a man weighing between 25 and 30 stone on a stretcher into position to come out of the back of her ambulance. The injury exacerbated her existing degenerative back condition. She claimed her employers had breached health and safety regulations by not undertaking an assessment of the risk to crews from bariatric patients. They denied liability but later settled for a six-figure sum when she took action through Thompson's solicitors, who act for Unison members.
Nurses are also at risk of accidents because they have to regularly turn obese patients to avoid them getting pressure ulcers (bed sores).
Growing numbers of obese patients prompted University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust to order super-size facilities such as bed spaces and examination rooms for heavier patients, as well as beds, mattresses and hoists for those weighing at least 160kg at its new Queen Elizabeth hospital, which opened in 2010.
Higher safe working limits mean each ward has a heavy-duty commode for patients weighing up to 318kg, a ceiling track hoist with a weight limit of 450kg and a wide armchair that can hold someone up to 260kg, though three others can withstand 445kg.
Obesity costs the NHS £5.1billion a year in treatment and equipment. But the obesity report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges this week warned that on current trends, it could become so serious that "the NHS can no longer cope".
Meanwhile hospitals in England reported 11,740 inpatient admissions with a primary diagnosis of obesity in 2011/12 according to new analysis from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
The report Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, (you can read the full document here); brings together several sources of recently published information to provide a comprehensive picture of obesity related issues in England.
It also includes information about hospital inpatient admissions with a primary diagnosis of obesity and a procedure of bariatric surgery (procedures performed to help weight loss; including stomach stapling and gastric bypass), which shows that in 2011/12:
Hospitals recorded 8,790 inpatient procedures; nine per cent more than in 2010/11 (8,090) and over four times more than in 2006/07 (1,950).3
Females continue to account for the majority of such procedures; with 6,710 procedures for females and 2,080 procedures for males.
HSCIC Chief Executive Tim Straughan said: "It won't have escaped the majority of people that obesity is a high profile issue in this country. This annual report is important in bringing clarity to how this actually affects people, patients and the NHS, from the weighing scales to the operating theatre.
"Based on the Body Mass Index measurement, the proportion of adults estimated to be of a normal weight has dropped substantially since this report's time series began in 1993. This data, along with the breadth of other obesity related information in this report, will be of interest to the public as well as health professionals and policy makers."
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