‘A fat lot of good’ centre for weight loss defended

The Rotherham Institute for Obesity (RIO) was dubbed a “fat lot of good” after an investigation by the Yorkshire Post revealed that, despite costing the NHS more than half a million pounds a year to run, the average weight loss of patients in the 18 months the service has been running is just seven pounds.

However, Dr Matthew Capehorn – the man behind the institute – insists that the centre is actually saving the taxpayer money.

His figures show that 51 per cent of adults and 69 per cent of children referred to RIO met their weight loss targets and he described the results as “incredible.”

Dr Capehorn told the Yorkshire Post: “The patients who attend RIO are those that have struggled with their weight for many years, and who have been unsuccessful with other community weight management programmes, commercial diets, or traditional dietary advice.

“To achieve over 50 per cent success is a credit to the team that work at RIO and the facilities that it offers.”

He added that “huge financial savings” had been made by the opening of RIO, which offers obese patients a variety of services including tailor-made diet plans and advice on exercise.

Dr Capehorn said: “The anticipated number of adults expected to need costly bariatric surgery for weight loss during the 2010/11 year was 67, but thanks to many of these patients being successfully managed by the RIO multidisciplinary team approach, this number was slashed to just 33.

“The cost of savings to the NHS just from having reduced the number of patients needing expensive and invasive surgery by 34 far exceeds the overall annual cost of the adult specialist obesity service.

“We have also reduced the number of inappropriate referrals from approximately 50 per cent to none at all, thereby making further savings to the NHS through less wasted time for the surgical teams. Taking all savings into account, we may already be saving the taxpayer money.”

Rotherham, where two thirds of adults are overweight or obese, is the first place in the country to open a specialist centre for obese patients. Latest figures show that, in the last 18 months, 2,478 adults and 255 children have been referred to RIO.