payment from nhs for diet class

mrsmoneyspender

hi, i don't know if this has been posted , i searched but couldn't find it, but for anyone who hasn't heard yet
the nhs are paying you to go to your diet meetings , ie weight watchers, slimming world, rosemary connley
i visited my doctors and asked help for loosing weight and was offered a 12 week program at any of the above classes, after loosing 5% in that period you can apply for another 12 weeks, i think this is all you get. it is a great incentive to get you on the right road to weight loss, i came out of my doctors feeling llike i had won the lottery!
the only condition was that i wasn't already registered
i have started this week and came across a few more ladies who also are on this, some of them went to the nurse and was offered it
the doc gives you a letter with a contact number and you tell them which diet class you want to use, they then send the vouchers.
hope this helps someone
mrs ms

onetomany

no mine does a gym discount

Bronnie

Around half the UK population is overweight, with 1 in 5 adults obese and the problem is forecast to worsen, with the ensuing health problems presenting a massive drain on NHS resources. There is no doubt the problem needs to be tackled. Whether targetting NHS funds to individuals in this way is the most appropriate and cost effective use of resources is another question.

Slimming classes currently cost around £4.50 per week with concessions for pensioners and young people and people who have successfuly lost weight and wish to maintain. Many GP surgeries and community centres in less-well off areas offer healthy eating classes/ weight management sessions free or at nominal cost to the public.

I would say most overweight individuals (and that includes me ) have willingly spent considerably more than £4.50 per week on the foods/ drinks/ junk that have led to them becoming overweight in the first place and will easily be saving that amount on their food/drinks weekly outgoings for their new healthier regime .

I personally do not think the NHS should be footing the bill for Slimming Clubs. It is up to the individual to take responsibility and the NHS to support and advise in other ways.

mrsmoneyspender

i think the nhs are doing this as a trial, i have heard there are only certain people who may be able to get this,
i fall into a catogory which is i have an illnesss that makes it hard for me to loose weight. i have had years of tests and trials on different medicine and have tried countless times to diet and keep the weight off, i exercise as much as i can. the treatments of tablets cost much more than diet classes and i was offered the stomach band which i think will have cost the nhs several thousand pounds,
i agree that people who don't have a real problem with weight should not be given this help but it is giving me new hope that i can get help and encouragement from the diet class and i still have to visit my doctor to inform him how i am progressing
i respect your views but not everyone can help there weight problems and i think if this helps people it will cut down costs in other areas of treatment for health problems related to weight gain.
mrs ms

oystercatcher

I think if this system actually works it should save the NHS quite a lot of money.
The diet classes are actually cheaper (to the NHS) than having a one to one with the nurse. Also if it prevents all the obesity related illnesses then it saves LOADS ! I'm guessing this system is only for those who are clinically obese not just anyone.

I must find out if my surgery does anything like this as it sounds a brilliant idea.

Bronnie

:)mrsmoneyspender, I do hope you are able to move towards resolving your health problems and I hope you find the initiative helpful.

I think it is quite an interesting subject for discussion.

At the SW meetings I attended recently, practically everybody there had been members of SW on and off numerous times over the years, losing the weight, often several stones, putting it back on again and returning for another to lose it again. I have myself. Many people in the group I was attending looked like they needed to lose in the region of 3 or more stones.

I think this does call into question the efficacy of Slimming Clubs in actually helping people to learn realistic strategies needed to maintain the loss. I would say losing weight is the easy part of the weight management process (and no way is it easy!!)

Sorry, but I still can't see any reason why the clinically obese shouldn't pay the modest fee for their slimming classes themselves. Does this mean if the NHS didn't pay, then they wouldn't bother?

dizziblonde

Yay another person bashing fat people. Do you shout abuse at them out of car windows in the street too? (I've had that done to me in the past and I've a friend who has had her shopping trolley contents commented on by complete strangers, despite having nothing of any controversy in there - no wonder lots of overweight people don't go out of their houses, therefore don't remain active and get trapped into an ever-increasing cycle of weight, social isolation, low self-esteem, comfort/boredom eating, increased weight)

We've finally stopped bashing the NHS helping smokers stop smoking with things like nicotine replacement and stop smoking classes etc... why shouldn't this be the same? You don't want fat people using NHS resources (last time I went to the doctors was a year ago for an ear infection btw... I hardly cost the NHS a tonne), but you won't give them any support to change their ways - apart from making them social pariahs.

And for the record - I DON'T throw cream cakes down my neck endlessly, so let's ditch that offensive stereotype please. I'm genetically predisposed to carry weight anyway, and because of the depression which haunts all the women in my family, I've got a tendency to lock myself away in the house (I border on agroaphobic) which led to me becoming increasingly physically inactive, piling on the weight, hiding away even more (especially after getting abuse hurled at me while walking back from lectures as a size 18 student) and things spiralling out of control. I also had an abusive relationship with a man who controlled every aspect of my life - including my diet and wouldn't let me choose salad and the like because he was scared of me recovering my self-esteem and leaving him like the waste of space he was. I also don't expect the NHS to bail me out, I pay myself and go to the gym 6 times a week, I eat sensibly, I'm losing weight gradually but it's MY business, not any of the self-appointed busybodies who love to judge and blame people.

I am however quite outspoken on the completely useless way in which obesity is being adressed in society - stigmatizing, demonizing and bashing people who quite often have really awful self-esteem issues bound up inexorably with their weight is not going to help them lose it. If subsidizing people to join a slimming class or a gym (my local gym does subsidized and supervised 12 week activity programmes for people - not the route I've taken to joining it though) helps to get them out and about (walking to these places also burns calories), removes their social isolation and raises their self esteem (helping with the boredom/comfort eating aspect) and educates them in better food choices/recipe choices etc as well as the direct ways to help them lose weight with the ensuing self-esteem boosts when they DO drop a bit... it's worth the cost really.

Lots of people DON'T know how to do things like cook sensible food - and the marketed "low fat/healthy option/generic slimming brand" options in supermarkets cost more - if you can't cook from scratch you don't appreciate it's do-able.... and these days lots of kids and parents are the generations who don't have a clue really. I've seen kids sent to school with a packed lunch consisting of 3 Jacob's crackers and half a chocolate easter egg - if throwing some money into adressing the parenting skills of these parents, or allowing schools to have the facilities to teach proper cooking (not just making chocolate cornflake cakes) is going to help the problem - it's an investment for long-term gain.

It's about flipping time the NHS and the like started offering constructive help to those desperate to lose weight - who are often depressed and need the way out of their depression marked out in baby steps... anyone who's been in that state of mind knows how difficult it can be to get out of the spiral and how you sometimes DO need pretty much the level of signposts saying "walk here", "get out of bed" to help you begin to make the change then why begrudge that. Sitting there complaining that people could spend the cash of one cream cake on the weekly fee just stereotypes and demonizes people and makes it even harder for them to make that initial change.

When I walked into the gym and asked to join, it was flipping hard to do. When I started going there, and had to put up with a couple of snide stick insects sniggering at the sight of me coming in - it was even harder. If I wasn't as stubborn or determined as I am (I want to lose weight in order to be able to concieve - note, I don't expect the NHS to help me while I'm the size I am - I'm not even registered with a doctor since I moved so you can't accuse me of wasting NHS resources), I would have ran away and not gone back because of how hard initial steps are. Some people aren't as strong-willed (or bolshy) as I am - they need the help to get there - or they'll continue in the cycle, with their kids perpetuating it. I'm glad the NHS is finally doing something other than shoving rumpled diet sheets at people and barking at them to "lose some weight".

Bronnie

Oh dear!

I'm sorry you're so upset that you have misinterpreted my posts.

busiscoming2

They are also offering several (I think 6) free sessions at participating local gym's, on a Doctors recommendation. My friend has done this not because of her weight but because she is depressed.

wigwam

Thanks OP for this information. I was going to join SW tomorrow but will now enquire with the GP tomorrow to see if they are a member of this scheme.

As an NHS worker do I feel guilty for NHS helping fat people?
Absolutely not - more waste in NHS is down to people not attending appointments / not taking medications / not willing to give up smoking / alcohol / lose weight - unlike people willing to help themselves and reduce future NHS costs.

taxdodger

wigwam wrote: »

Thanks OP for this information. I was going to join SW tomorrow but will now enquire with the GP tomorrow to see if they are a member of this scheme.

As an NHS worker do I feel guilty for NHS helping fat people?
Absolutely not - more waste in NHS is down to people not attending appointments / not taking medications / not willing to give up smoking / alcohol / lose weight - unlike people willing to help themselves and reduce future NHS costs.

However most of these things fall into the adictions class and are indicaive of other underlyinig problems.Having weak will power is no different from haing a weak heart, should people with weak hearts be denied medical tretament.
So people might consider you to be weak in the head or in laymans terms 'thick', should you be denied treatment because of that?