Obese patients not treated as well as those with cancer and diabetes in public hospital system

OBESE patients are not being treated as well as those with cancer or diabetes in the public hospital system with some facilities not even providing suitable chairs or treatment tables that can hold their weight, shocking new research reveals.

OBESE patients are not being treated as well as those with cancer or diabetes in the public hospital system with some facilities not even providing suitable chairs or treatment tables that can hold their weight, shocking new research reveals.

Medical specialists are calling for an overhaul of obesity medicine after the research published today in the Clinical Obesity Journal found patients suffered long wait times, a lack of specialist treatment and huge out-of-pocket costs.

Patients not only suffered the humiliation at some health facilities of not fitting into waiting room chairs but were not able to walk the distance from the carpark to the front door.

The groundbreaking research is the first of its kind and gathered feedback on obesity services from specialists at 15 hospitals across Australia.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Bill Boyd told The Courier-Mail that the study findings would not surprise any doctor working in public hospitals in the state and highlighted the need for urgent action.

“The number of Queensland’s overweight and obese residents has reached an unprecedented level,” Dr Boyd said.

One million Australians are severely obese, with a BMI of 40 or higher and the number is rising.

Despite the AMA stating that obesity is Australia’s biggest public health challenge, the researchers have found the level of care for seriously overweight patients would not be accepted if it were applied to those with cancer or heart disease.

“The current national approach to assessing and managing clinically severe obesity would surely be unacceptable if it were applied to other complex chronic health conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease,” said COSiPH Working Group chairman Professor John Dixon, from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Dr Evan Atlantis, from the Western Sydney University School of Nursing and Midwifery, who led the study, said the obesity specialists agreed that hospitals were not doing enough.

“The experts that responded to this study reached a consensus on the need for significant improvements in obesity medicine – this includes education and training for staff; improved physical infrastructure and access to services and more targeted research funding,” Dr Atlantis

said.

There were recommendations for larger medical plinths and chairs, and easier access to hospitals with more drop-off zones.

Dr Boyd says that while public hospitals needed short-term assistance to meet rising demand for services and treatments, there is also an urgent need for long-term strategies such as banning the advertising and marketing of junk food and sugary drinks to children.

“Our eating habits and attitudes start when we are very young and it is in these formative years that we need to start to win our battle of the bulge,” he said.