The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service has had to equip a number of ambulances to deal with obese patients. With rise of overweight and obese people across UK more and more services have to buy specialist equipment to deal with these patients. Special equipments include wider stretchers, more lifting gear and reinforcing existing vehicles.
In whole of UK these “bariatric” equipment enhanced ambulances cost up to £90,000 each. But Ambulance Service in Northern Ireland only modified existing ambulances. Since 2006 nine non-emergency ambulances have been outfitted to support bariatric patients, patients who weigh about 40kg more than would be recommended for their height. South Central ambulance trust has spent more than £1 million in the last three years to upgrade nearly two thirds of its 180-strong fleet. West Midlands has also bought four specialist bariatric ambulances at a combined cost of more than £300,000.
According to Ambulance Service Communications Officer John McPoland the upgrades would ensure staff and patients were protected if there were any difficulties caused by a patient’s size or weight. “We have equipped some of our vehicles with stretchers that are able to take weights of up to 63st. These stretchers have visual and audio warning systems in place,” he explained.
However these ambulances are those that may be used for hospital to hospital transfers or taking discharged patients home not those generally used for taking someone to A&E, although they can be deployed in emergencies if necessary. Mr McPoland said the additional cost of fitting out the special ambulances at the time of ordering was an additional £5,000. Cushions cost about £2,500 and stretchers between £7,000 to £10,000 while reinforcing an ambulance tail-lift costs about £800 per vehicle “Since 2006 we have spent £45,000 on these vehicles which we feel is money well spent because it does look after our staff in terms of health and safety and it also looks after a particular type of patient.”
Dr Frank Atherton, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said it was not surprising the NHS was responding in this way. “It is unfortunate and what we need to do is get better at trying to prevent obesity in the first place,” he said.
Jo Webber, director of the Ambulance Service Network said, “The fact is patients are getting larger and larger and ambulances need to be able to respond immediately to what could be life-threatening situations…Every service is having to invest money in this. It shows that some of the lifestyle changes we are seeing have a range of costs. It is not just about treating them, but the infrastructure costs as well.”
Britain has the highest obesity level in Europe, with 24.5 per cent of adults classed as obese, according to a study released in December by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The EU average is 14 per cent.
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