The number of Lincolnshire patients so obese they need surgery has rocketed in the past two years.

In 2006 just two patients were referred to a consultant to be considered for bariatric surgery – procedures such as stomach stapling or gastric banding.

This compares to 30 county patients in 2008.

GP Paddy Twomey, medical secretary of Lincolnshire’s Local Medical Committee, said that a GP would only refer a patient to be considered for obesity surgery as a last resort.

This could be prompted by a hospital consultant seeing a patient for an associated weight-condition, such as problems with the knees, who would send them back to the GP for weight management.

“If GPs are referring all these people to be considered for bariatric surgery I suspect the completion rate of the operations would have significantly gone up too,” said Dr Twomey.

“I think this is partly because of awareness that surgery is possible and can achieve significant and dramatic results.

“And with celebrities such as Fern Britton undergoing gastric banding there has been increased media coverage of the procedure.

“But also being obese is becoming more common.

“You only have to walk down the high street in any English town and you can see far more obese people than you would have done a decade ago.”

NHS Lincolnshire’s public health budget for preventing obesity has almost doubled this financial year from £1m in 2008/09 to £1.9m in 2009/10.

Meanwhile treating the obese is estimated to cost the county £187.9 million, nearly a fifth of the annual health budget.

This sum includes all associated costs of obesity from the prescription of cholesterol-fight statins to bariatric surgery.

Source: This is Lincolnshire

Vita Clinics are bariatric surgery specialists based in Birmingham – www.vitaclinics.co.uk