£60k to buy operating tables for fat patients

The "bariatric" tables are the most expensive items on a lengthy shopping list of equipment needed to treat overweight people.

In the past year alone, NHS Lothian bought 11 special tables at 4800 each and two specialist chairs costing 4500 each.

It has also bought 450 high-backed chairs, which can hold people weighing up to 30-stones, and spent more than 5000 hiring out equipment.

Figures show reinforced beds were required on 1200 occasions last year – up from 1026 on the year before.

It comes as health chiefs warn obesity is a growing strain on NHS Lothian's resources. It emerged last week that the health board spends around 60,000-a-day treating 150,000 people in the region classed as obese.

Campaigners are becoming increasingly concerned about the health of the nation, with 60 per cent of adults in Scotland officially classed as overweight or obese.

Professor Raj Bhopal, professor of public health at Edinburgh University, said: "These figures come as no surprise to me at all. I am very uncomfortable about what is happening in terms of obesity.

"We in the world of public health are struggling very hard to find a response the public will accept and rise to. In Scotland, obesity levels have at least doubled in the last 20 years.

"We are in the middle of a worldwide obesity epidemic and Scotland is one of the leading nations.

"There's a simple answer but not one the public wants to act upon – eat less, drink less alcohol, get out and about and keep active. It's very worrying. Diabetes levels, for example, are rising fast."

The number of people on NHS Lothian's diabetic register recently passed 3000, but experts believe a further 7700 in the Lothians have the condition but do not realise it.

Ten people have had gastric band surgery to help reduce their weight through NHS Lothian – a procedure only introduced in recent months, with another 20 operations due to take place in the current financial year, at a total cost of 150,000.

The new operating tables, however, are for general use, not just specialist operations.

NHS Lothian signed a 15-year bed provision contract with Huntleigh Healthcare in 2004, which includes the supply of special tables when required at NHS Lothian hospitals.

It also has a store of hoists for use in its facilities, which have a lifting capacity of 47 stone.

Jim McCaffery, director of acute services at NHS Lothian, said: "NHS Lothian protects its staff from potential injury through rigorous protocols on safe handling of patients.

"We provide training on safe handling methods and ensure that staff have access to beds, hoists and commodes designed for use by patients, with some devices having a lifting capacity of more than 60 stones."