'Fat' ambulances planned to cope with rising number of obese patients

Emergency service bosses are concerned that their regular vehicles are not strong enough to carry the increasing number of people who weigh 20 stone or more and are drawing up plans to buy reinforced ambulances with extra wide doors.

The news comes as figures show the number of emergency call-outs involving overweight patients has reached record levels.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) statistics show that this year more than 13,000 call-outs were to obese patients suffering from weight-related health problems, including diabetes, thrombosis and heart disease.

In some cases, where ambulances have not been able to carry severely obese patients, people have had to be carried in the back of vans.

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The trend has prompted discussion about buying obesity - or "bariatricî" - ambulances which can carry up to five tonnes.

Peter Bradley, the Government's ambulance adviser and LAS chief, said that 999 call-outs to overweight patients were increasing the pressure on staff but stressed they were given the same priority as other callers needing emergency care.

He said the bariatric ambulances cost up to £90,000 each.

"We are finalising our fleet plan and they will be part of the consideration. If it can be used as an ordinary ambulance for the rest of the time, fine," said Mr Bradley.

Overall, the number of call-outs for overweight patients with obesity-related health problems, including type two diabetes, has risen from 12,884 last year to 13,161 this year. The greatest rise in the number of overweight patients needing emergency help has been in Bexley, Kent, with 376 calls this year, compared with 306 last year, a rise of nearly a quarter.

This is followed by Kensington and Chelsea, where overweight patients made 249 calls between September last year and August this year, compared with 209 in the previous 12 months.

Nationwide, Britain's obesity epidemic is costing the country more than £7 billion a year.

A report released this week warned that obesity was more dangerous than smoking and will cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years.

The Foresight report, commissioned by the Government, predicted that 60 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women will be clinically obese by 2020.

Some hospitals were unable to send obese patients to first-floor waiting rooms. Patients at Ealing Hospital who weigh 30 stone or more are being fast-tracked to ground-floor wards because management are worried they are too heavy for the admissions ward upstairs.

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats showed that hospitals have doubled their spending to treat overweight patients.