British National Health Service pays people to lose weight, but allows fast-food outlets in hospitals

From The Daily Mail in the UK. Pictured is a Burger King outlet at Croydon Hospital, in South London.

An NHS weight-loss strategy which pays patients to diet is being undermined by hospitals renting out space to fast food outlets including Burger King and Starbucks.

Overweight people could be paid up to £1,800 to lose weight under the plans, which are currently being piloted at the Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust.

Around 400 patients and nurses are taking part in the scheme, which sees payments range from £200 for losing two stone in five months to almost £1,800 for dropping ten stone in 21 months.

The ‘pound for pound’ diet plans are run by firm Weight Wins, which will receive £185 from Trusts for every person who enrols, The Sun reported.

But the scheme, which has so far yielded ‘stunning’ results and could be rolled out across many more Trusts, is at odds with hospitals allowing junk food outlets to trade on their premises.

The presence of a burger chain in the hospital, which specialises in cardiology treatments, contradicts advice given to patients with heart problems who are warned to steer clear of fatty foods, red meat and salt.
As levels of obesity-related disease rocket in the UK, the British Heart Foundation called the roll-out of the chains in hospitals ‘absurd’.

The National Obesity Forum also panned the scheme, claiming the NHS was ‘effectively endorsing’ fast food by allowing it to be sold.

But the NHS Trust for Croydon said: ‘Outlets provide choice for visitors, staff and any patients well enough to leave wards.’

Forty of England’s 170 NHS Trusts have rented space to fast food restaurants and five more are set to open. NHS chiefs insist they will stay owing to long-term lease commitments.