Over 90% of people referred to NHS fat camps are no slimmer after six months

MORE than 90 per cent of people referred to NHS fat camps are no slimmer after six months, figures suggest.

A third of the 134,445 offered the free 12-week programme by their GPs between April 2021 and December 2022 never went.

GettyFigures suggest that over 90 per cent of people referred to NHS fat camps are no slimmer after six months[/caption]

And only eight per cent of those who turned up — 6,590 out of 87,320 — were proven to have lost weight and kept it off for at least 26 weeks.

Some 20,000 others did start to lose weight but ditched it before the six-month measure so their condition is not known.

The sessions cost the Government £30.5million but Jane Deville-Almond, of the British Obesity Society, said: “If we’re paying millions and it doesn’t work then it needs to be stopped.

“We need to be more inventive about helping people who struggle to lose weight.”

The classes are known as tier two weight management — above basic advice but below injections or surgery.

The Department of Health insisted out of all who started the sessions, 43 per cent lost weight after 12 weeks.

It said it is “taking strong action” to help tackle obesity.

   

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