The number of patients needing urgent treatment because they are overweight has risen tenfold in the last decade.
Official figures published today reveal the scale of Britain’s obesity crisis.
Some 10,571 patients were admitted to hospital last year because doctors feared they were so fat that their health was in immediate danger.
A further 7,214 needed weight loss surgery and an additional 1,450 were put on some form of anti-obesity drug.
The problem appears to be far more serious among women, who account for 80 per cent of obesity-related hospital admissions and operations, even though levels of obesity between the sexes are similar.
Experts say this is because women are more self-conscious about their bodies and are likely to press doctors for treatment or surgery to help them slim.
But it does not explain why they are four times as likely to be admitted to hospital with obesity-related conditions such as breathing or heart problems, which implies more women are dangerously overweight than men.
The figures published by the NHS Information Centre probably represent only a fraction of the growing toll of obesity on the health service.
They do not take into account numbers referred with heart disease, strokes, type-2 diabetes or high blood pressure, which are all caused by people being dangerously overweight.
Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS around £4.2billion a year, the majority incurred by treating related illnesses.
Figures show that 8,074 women and 2,495 men were admitted to hospital last year with breathing difficulties, heart problems, organ failure and other conditions directly caused by obesity, a rise of 30 per cent on the previous year.
A further 5,762 women needed surgery last year – including gastric bypass operations and gastric band fitting – compared with 1,450 men.
The number needing some form of operation rose by 70 per cent last year even though many health trusts have started restricting procedures because they are so expensive.
Gastric bypass operations cost between £8,000 and £14,000 while a band is less expensive, usually priced at between £5,000 and £7,000. Almost a quarter of adults are obese – around 24 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women.
But more than 60 per cent are classified as either obese or overweight and figures are expected to rise sharply over the next decade.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said of the figures: ‘They will prove to those who wish to dismiss the severity of the obesity crisis just how bad it is, and the rise in surgery is particularly revealing.
‘The present government cannot be held to account for obesity as it exists today but it must be held to account if its policies are not better-focused to tackle it from now on.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We need a new approach to tackling obesity.
‘That is why the Coalition wasted no time in publishing a public health white paper last year.’
Official figures published today reveal the scale of Britain’s obesity crisis.
Some 10,571 patients were admitted to hospital last year because doctors feared they were so fat that their health was in immediate danger.
Obesity crisis: The number of dangerously fat people being treated in hospital has risen tenfold over the past decade
The problem appears to be far more serious among women, who account for 80 per cent of obesity-related hospital admissions and operations, even though levels of obesity between the sexes are similar.
Experts say this is because women are more self-conscious about their bodies and are likely to press doctors for treatment or surgery to help them slim.
But it does not explain why they are four times as likely to be admitted to hospital with obesity-related conditions such as breathing or heart problems, which implies more women are dangerously overweight than men.
The figures published by the NHS Information Centre probably represent only a fraction of the growing toll of obesity on the health service.
They do not take into account numbers referred with heart disease, strokes, type-2 diabetes or high blood pressure, which are all caused by people being dangerously overweight.
Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS around £4.2billion a year, the majority incurred by treating related illnesses.
A further 5,762 women needed surgery last year – including gastric bypass operations and gastric band fitting – compared with 1,450 men.
The number needing some form of operation rose by 70 per cent last year even though many health trusts have started restricting procedures because they are so expensive.
Gastric bypass operations cost between £8,000 and £14,000 while a band is less expensive, usually priced at between £5,000 and £7,000. Almost a quarter of adults are obese – around 24 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women.
But more than 60 per cent are classified as either obese or overweight and figures are expected to rise sharply over the next decade.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said of the figures: ‘They will prove to those who wish to dismiss the severity of the obesity crisis just how bad it is, and the rise in surgery is particularly revealing.
‘The present government cannot be held to account for obesity as it exists today but it must be held to account if its policies are not better-focused to tackle it from now on.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We need a new approach to tackling obesity.
‘That is why the Coalition wasted no time in publishing a public health white paper last year.’
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