Obesity crisis costs the country BILLIONS more than we spend on police and fire services
New sugar tax to help prevent people getting fat and cut 40 percent of NHS workload
TREATING fat people costs around £16billion a year — more than goes on police and fire services.
NHS England boss Simon Stevens laid bare the startling figures to MPs as he underlined the obesity crisis.
He said preventing people piling on the pounds could save the health service billions of pounds every year.
Police and firefighters cost taxpayers £13.6billion.
Mr Stevens also told the Commons’ Health Committee 40 percent of the NHS’s workload deals with things like smoking, boozing, over-eating and lack of exercise.
But he said the Government’s new sugar tax would help tackle the issue.
His comments came as health charities urged ministers to produce their long-awaited Childhood Obesity Strategy as soon as possible.
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To have to spend this amount of money on a condition that is quite preventable is bananas
Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum
It was due to be released last autumn but was put back until after the EU referendum. It may not now be published until 2017.
Last night Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum slammed the delays, saying: “It’s a disaster. If this is kicked into the long grass I will be in total despair on behalf of the children.
“The cost of obesity and its consequences to the country and wider economy is huge. To have to spend this amount of money on a condition that is quite preventable is bananas.”
Research published earlier this week found around 250,000 people across Britain were at risk of death in the next nine years from preventable conditions.
These include smoking, harmful alcohol consumption, poor diet and physical inactivity.