Obesity set to cost us £5.4 million a year
Friday 6th November 2009, 2:30PM GMT.
OBESITY in Guernsey could cost up to £5.4m. a year if it is not tackled, Health has warned in a new strategy published today.
But there is no money to implement it fully, which would require nearly £400,000 a year.
Among the things the strategy calls for are funding two dietitians at £95,000 a year, a health visitor to promote breastfeeding at £40,000 annually and specialist PE staff for a programme in schools at up to £50,000 a year.
Many of the 27 recommendations can, however, happen within existing resources.
Health and Social Services has conceded that there is no new money for the programme, so instead has called for certain areas to be prioritised in future years.
‘The causes of obesity are enormously complex and will not be solved without “whole government” action, supporting and supported by the business sector, all sections of health professions, voluntary groups and organisations and by individuals themselves,’ said minister Hunter Adam in a Billet d’Etat released this morning.
The prevalence of obesity among adults in England has more than tripled since the 1980s and with it the health risk. One in three children there are either overweight or obese.
Data suggests that Guernsey is following a similar pattern, said Deputy Adam.
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Here we go, I can save the island £5.4m a year. It’s very easy, don’t stuff more calories down your face than your body can burn off. It’s not rocket science.
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It makes the £400K spent on treating legal high users seems like a bargain!
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Its a world wide problem amoung the rich nations of the world,and unless stopped will drag down all the health systems.If you want to be kind,then you’ve gotta be hard,all sickness associated with Obesity should be paid for by the individual,or its parents!
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Sorry to contradict Beaumont, but people are not actually responsible if they are fat. It is all down to Genes apparently, or it’s just a modern mystery as to were all this weight comes from. But one things for sure it doesn’t come from eating. As I have already said, they are not responsible and the rest of the tax public that aren’t fat, or obese, or morbidly obese, or junior sumo class, should be prepared to pay for there care and welfare.
I think that was Politically Correct enough for now, as I have to continue my vigil on photographing the fairies at the bottom of my garden whilst writing to Santa.
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Better get customs to start intercepting Mars bars.
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‘The causes of obesity are enormously complex and will not be solved without “whole government” action’…
…or perhaps more easily and cheaply solved by making the individuals concerned (with the exception of a minority who do have dodgy genes) take some responsibility for what they stuff into their bodies and getting some regular exercise…
simples.
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just have a stroll down to your office and have a look how many tins of roses / celebrations / other sweets, cookies are lying around.
And later have a look at the take-away parlours and their ‘i’ve just eaten 1000 kcal at one sitting’ customers.
Not a rocket sience that it all ends up around people’s hips! And we, normal heathy people will be forcd pick up the bill again.
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Dean – perhaps I’ll pop down Alliance and stock up now ready for when chocolate becomes illegal….I can then sell Mars Bars for £30 a bar and make a fortune!
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Nat, sorry to pick an argument again!
“It makes the £400K spent on treating legal high users seems like a bargain!”
I assume you are referring to the £5.4m
Reading the full article on the front of yesterdays Press the full £5.4m figure comes from an estimate based over the next 30 years, it is not the amount spent currently.
“But there is no money to implement it fully, which would require nearly £400,000 a year.”
How much was spent helping legal high abusers?
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perhaps all the obese should take responsibility for them selves and eat less and exercise more, then we won’t need dieticians at 45,000!!!!! a year each.they sound overpaid to me.
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Individuals are aware of the risks of over-eating, so why should the health conscious or sensible eaters be responsible for their health?? Yes some individuals have a gene defect which causes over-eating but this is not true for everybody, some people are just greedy and whilst us decent tax payers are providing suitable health care for them why should tehy stop??
45k anually, maybe I will look into becoming a dietician, apparently it makes no difference if people listen or not, you just get paid to hand out the advice, regardless of its effects.
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Top Tip
Fatties. Don’t clog up the sytem with your ailments, take 4-methylmethcathinone. Hey presto, skinny AND cheaper to treat. It’s win win win!
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To be brief, it’s not genes that are the problem here. We weren’t fat 50 years ago; we are now. Genes haven’t changed in that time.
What has changed is behaviour – eating and exercise.
Blaming individuals won’t help much either. We all know we should eat less and exercise more. Telling people to “take responsibility” won’t have much of an effect.
I’ll give you an example. Imagine a new office block is built. It’s 5 floors high. The planners have a choice. Do they put in a large, fast, convenient lift in the centre of the foyer, with a narrow flight of stairs in the corner behind a door? Or do they put a smaller, slower lift in the corner, and make the stairs more prominent?
If they do the former, their employees will be fatter than if they do the latter.
That’s how to achieve change. Cheap, guilt-free, and barely noticed. But it has to be planned carefully.
Interestingly, Guernsey’s Obesity Strategy Group are organizing a one-day conference looking at the issues on the 23rd of November.
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Maybe the mandarins of Guernsey could look at a tax on sugar,fat and cholesterol laden foods on the same way as booze and smokes are taxed.
That way most of the “tastier” products thrust on the indifferent consumers by our supermarkets could be an insurance payment for the health system going forward.
Perhaps it could be called Fat Added Tax. F.A.T.
As for educating the great unwashed your having a laugh….mmmm junk food….cheap as chips.
Mind you if we can legislate against legal highs that quickly , this should be easy peasy..
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“The causes of obesity are enormously complex and will not be solved without whole government”
Self discipline isn’t that complex.
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The overweight, like myself, usually live long enough to complete a full working tax paying life but die early from heart failure, cancer, diabetes etc. We will therefore cost much less in pensions, retirement homes and geriatric care than those who live a healthier lifestyle and live on into their eighties or nineties.
I have always suspected that despite a lot of talk governments do not really want people to live longer.
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well well well ban the legal high known as CHOCOLATE ban CHINESE food ban the lot and we can go back to the dark ages and live of the land and smoke proper canabis as it was legal all over the world for over 88 million years but only in the last 100 years has it been illegal , i think all bigger people are secret tokers after all it only makes you want to eat more and relax NO MORE MARS BARS !!!!! ban them all
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Ever gone shopping and bought just fresh: fruit, veg, meat and bread? Have you noticed how much of the supermarket you haven’t visited??? There’s the problem.
More buses on more routes not just to and from town will encourage people out of their cars which will mean more walking.
Simple, but we can’t have people working up a sweat now can we??? The shame of it!
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Student Bob’s Fact for the Day? The cost of healthcare for the elderly is roughly 40% of the total healthcare budget. Old age and the associated illnesses are by far the biggest consumer of healthcare services.
Surely if we’re going to ban legal highs and tax fatty foods, then the first step should surely have been to introduce compulsory euthanasia at 65 years old??
There’s a £40,000,000 saving for you. Let’s all get fat and high!!
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It is an outrage that obesity is costing us £5.4m per year. If we all stuck to chips and other cheap high calorie foods I see no reason why we cannot all be obese for a fraction of the cost.
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