Firefighters across Greater Manchester are called to help move severely obese people four times more than they were a decade ago.
The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) were called by police and paramedics to assist in the transport and care of bariatric patients – those weighing more than 25 stone – on 41 occasions in 2021, up from nine times in 2012.
The number of incidents over the past decade has increased by 355%.
Wigan had the highest number of incidents last year with 11, followed by Manchester city with 10.
According to data from a Freedom of Information request, Wigan also had the highest number of incidents overall since 2012 with 32, followed again by Manchester city with 28.
A GMFRS spokesperson said: “Emergency services work closely together in responding to a variety of different incidents, combining expertise to keep people safe.
“In cases involving bariatric patients, where there is a threat to life, we have specialist equipment and capabilities to aid ambulance colleagues, so they are able to offer the care required.”
Paul Gately, a professor at Leeds Beckett University and CEO of MoreLife, said the rise in incidents across Greater Manchester was not surprising and a consequence of underfunding in tackling obesity.
Paul said: “We have seen more than ten years of austerity and the fundamental reality is our NHS has been underfunded for those years.
“Action to tackle obesity is going down, investment is going down and there is no action for people who suffer from obesity.”
Paul said more funding was needed from the government to tackle obesity, but recognition was also needed from local leadership on the seriousness of the issue in Greater Manchester.
Paul said: “I don’t hear that from Andy Burnham, we need that local leadership and that leadership needs to be bold and ambitious and it needs to talk about the serious issues of the time.
“But it also needs to say, ‘Actually, we don’t want a population of Greater Manchester where we are putting our ambulance drivers and our fire service workers under more and more pressure’.”
Data from the Active Lives Adult Survey estimates that 25.3% of adults in England were living with obesity in November 2020 to November 2021.
This is an increase from 24.4% in 2019 to 2020 and 22.7% in 2015 to 2016.
This was higher in the North West, with 27.5% of adults estimated to be obese during the same period.
Wigan was estimated to have the second highest percentage of obese adults across Greater Manchester with 31.9%, beaten only by Oldham with 32.4%.
