It's official! mega-lift ambulances confirm Australia's obesity problem

It seems that obesity has become such a problem in Australia that some states have been forced to buy super-size ambulances to cope with those patients who are so fat they cannot fit inside a regular size ambulance.

The Health Minister for the New South Wales government, Reba Meagher, says the state has ordered three mega-lift ambulances at a cost of $150,000 each to cater for obese patients.

The health minister says obesity is now a severe health problem and the community is paying the price for it.

Meagher says the vehicles cost triple that of a regular ambulance.

The mega ambulances have stretchers and wheelchairs which can carry patients weighing as much as 400 kilograms and are designed so that ambulance officers do not have to lift the patient.

Mike Willis the manager of the Ambulance Service operations says with half of all Australians now overweight or obese, the ambulance fleet needed 'beefing up' to deal with the new reality.

Willis says whereas a few years ago they would deal with two or three severely obese cases a month this has now escalated to as many as six cases a week.

According to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2 million more adults are classified as overweight or obese than in 1995.

Over 7.4 million adults or 54 per cent of the adult population are now classified as overweight or obese compared with the 1995 figure of 45 per cent.

The figures reveal that obesity is increasing at a faster rate than the proportion who are overweight.

Sydney already has three mega-lift ambulances introduced in 2002, designed for people who weigh at least 180 kilograms; they are based at Macquarie Fields, Caringbah and Blacktown, and have to date transported about 1552 patients.

Ms Meagher says moving a seriously obese patient usually takes five hours, and sometimes requires the help of police, firefighters and volunteers from the State Emergency Service.

The latest research from Access Economics has estimated the economic cost of obesity to the Australian health system as around $873 million a year and Ms Meagher says along with an ageing population, presents the most significant challenge facing the Australian health system.

Data recently released by NSW Health has revealed there are seven urban and 12 rural areas where more than half of people over 16 were fat; also revealed was that one in every four school students were overweight or obese.

According to the report obesity and its associated illnesses cost Australian society and governments a total of 21 billion dollars in 2005.

Among men, the biggest increase in obesity between 1995 and 2005 occurred in the 25-34 age bracket, with the figure jumping 10 per cent to 23 per cent; for women, the biggest increase was in the 35-44 age range, with 20 per cent obesity compared with 12 per cent in 1995.