GPs will also receive extra payment for keeping records of patients who weigh too much
A new scheme will allow GPs to receive an extra payment for advising obese patients to lose weight. As well as this they will receive further 'bonuses' for keeping a list of those who weigh too much. With two out of three adults now overweight, this new plan hopes to encourage more people to think healthy and lose the weight that they need to. It comes under a national payment scheme that will allow doctors to boost their incomes by recording when they advise obese people on weight management, or when they offer them a free place on a diet club, which the NHS will pay for. Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum, told the Daily Telegraph that he was appalled that doctors will receive extra payments just for advising people on their health, which surely comes under their job description in the first place. A recent trial, run by the University of Birmingham has found that people who are referred to commercial diet clubs by their doctors are far more likely to lose weight, than those who choose to do it by themselves. A study from earlier this month estimated that illnesses caused by obesity and poor diet is now costing the health service more than £6bn a year. By the year 2040, according to government forecasts, more than half of adults and a quarter of children wll be obese.
Tagged in Obesity