TREATING diseases linked to obesity in Bracknell and Ascot has cost the NHS more than £2.4 million in the last three years.

The huge cost is largely due to the high number of people diagnosed with coronary heart disease (CHD), with more than 300 people being seen for the condition in 2016/2017.

This meant East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was forced to pay out £680,378 to treat patients with CHD in this year.

However, the number of people from Bracknell and Ascot treated by the CCG for coronary heart disease went down to 286 in 2017/18, resulting in a cost of £476,441.

Figures for this year suggest the number will be lower again – as of January 2019, only 140 were seen by the NHS for CHD.

A spokesman for East Berkshire CCG outlined that there is not a direct link between these figures and the impact of obesity, but also added: “There is a strong evidence base that there is increased risks of diabetes and CVD (cardiovascular disease) and cancers associated with obesity which increases when combined with other factors such as ethnicity deprivation, family history, other social factors such as housing, etc.

“The CCG is working closely with our public health colleagues in the local authorities to reduce the levels of obesity.”

Statistics obtained by The News showed that ‘atherosclerosis without gangrene’ is also a costly disease for the CCG to treat.

Despite only 87 people being treated for the condition in the last three years, the CCG has spent almost £400,000 on supporting people with the disease.

Atherosclerosis with gangrene, however, was a similarly costly disease, with an expense of £250,000 – but only 30 people were treated for this condition.

Treating type 2 diabetes mellitus cost the NHS more than £205,000 in the last two full years as 87 people from Bracknell and Ascot were attended to.

Seeing to people with high blood pressure cost the NHS just under £95,000 in the last three years with 125 people being treated for the disease.

These diseases cost East Berkshire CCG £2,412,631 in total, but treating people from Slough with obesity-related diseases cost the same CCG £2.8m in the same time period.

Despite this, people from Windsor and Maidenhead were treated for obesity-related diseases at a cost of £2.3m.

This means treating obesity-related diseases across East Berkshire cost the NHS £7.54m.

Paul Evans, Vice Chairman of The British Obesity Society, said: “The cost of obesity to the UK economy sits at around £27bn a year.

“What’s more, we spend £11m annually on adaptive equipment to treat those who are severely overweight – including that on mortuary slabs!

“One in eleven deaths are linked to obesity-related diseases – we are killing ourselves with the food we are putting in our mouths; in Berkshire, just 30% of adults do less than 35 minutes of exercise a week and there are more than 100 takeaways for every 100,000 people.

“Cash strapped authorities cannot continue to bail out what is a preventable issue.”