Obesity: Ambulances Are Too Small For Many in The UK!
Some people believe reporting on obesity is scaremongering. Unfortunately it is just a fact of life in modern Britain.
It is directly related to an unhealthy lifestyle, ours is modelled much more on the USA than the rest of mainland Europe which is one explanation for obesity levels averaging 14% in mainland Europe rather than the 25% obesity levels we have here.
"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," Jo Webber, director of Britain's Ambulance Service Network, told the BBC."
Nigel Wells, an ambulance operations manager said to the BBC: "It is all about safety for our patients and safety for our crews. We have got a greater number of patients who are larger in size. A few years ago - probably only 10 years ago - your average patient was 12 to 13 stone, now that's probably 17 to 18 stone. And we quite regularly see patients around 30 stone in weight and even bigger than that."
12-13 Stone (76-82kg / 168-182lbs)
17-18 Stone (102-114kg / 238-252lbs)
30 Stone (190kg / 420lbs)
Read more in these news links below: -->
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12355146
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12287880
http://www.thefitnessexplorer.com/home/2010/9/26/news-an-obesity-epidemic-globesity.html