The British National Health Service has seen a massive increase in surgical procedures aimed at dealing with obesity in the last four years, according to figures published yesterday.
Surgeons have been called in as obesity becomes a major problem for hospitals.
In the year from 2008 to 2009 some 7,990 people were admitted to hospital for obesity itself – rather than related health problems.
This was eight times the number recorded a year earlier.
And some 1.28 million prescriptions were dispensed for obesity – ten times the number a decade earlier, according to the NHS Information Centre.
Surgeons perform a range of procedures for obesity, including stomach stapling and gastric by-passes, and these are known as bariatric surgery.
There were 4,220 of these last year – more than twice the number two years earlier.
Last night the Royal College of Surgeons defended its recent call for even more spending on bariatric surgery.
A spokesman said: "Although weight loss operations have doubled since 2007 the numbers being carried out are still woefully short of what is required to treat severe, life-threatening obesity in the UK.
Despite the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) providing strong evidence to support surgery as the only cost-effective treatment for severe obesity, many thousands of patients who qualify for surgery are being denied access to life-saving operations by NHS commissioners.
"Lives are being lost due to local delegation of a key health policy."
But the Royal College of Nursing called for more school nurses and health visitors to tackle the problem at source.
Chief executive Dr Peter Carter said: "It is deeply concerning that obesity continues to be a significant threat to the long and short-term health of?over 60 per cent of adults, and a quarter of children, who are overweight or obese."
NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: "This report highlights the impact of obesity not just on society, but on the NHS.
"The figures show a clear rise in hospital admissions, surgical procedures and drug therapies to help people tackle their obesity."
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