RCP publishes guidance on how to tackle obesity

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published new guidance on obesity, including calling on the NHS to do more to promote physical activity programmes for its employees.

The guidance, Action on obesity: Comprehensive care for all, has warned that the UK has one of the highest rates of severe obesity in the developed world, with an estimated 25% of the adult population expected to be classed as medically obese by 2050. This is calculated to come at a cost to the economy of £10 billion, it added.

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The guidance has recommended that GPs should play a core role in reducing obesity rates, while the NHS “must promote healthy eating and physical activity programmes for its employees and reduce the levels of obesity in NHS staff”.

It has also recommended the creation of a new subspecialty of obesity medicine, giving all healthcare professionals training in the essential facts of obesity, the development of health and wellbeing strategies and the creation of more joined-up and multidisciplinary teams.