GPs say patients take offence when told they need to lose weight

GPs are offending overweight patients by warning them they need to go on a diet, a poll suggests.

The survey found one in three had seen patients take offence when they had raised the issue of their weight.

Current NHS advice says family doctors should offer all obese patients free places on courses run by WeightWatchers and Slimming World. And last year a study by Oxford University found just a 30 second intervention was enough to make a difference.

The advice from the National Instititute for Health and Care Excellence says that when raising the question of weight, health professionals should“ensure the tone and content of all communications is respectful and non-judgemental”.

But the survey of 1,141 GPs by Pulse magazine found 32 per cent said patients had been offended by their efforts to address the matter.

One Surrey GP said: “Patients are often resentful when GPs say weight is the cause of their problems.

“Some patients have declined to see some of our GPs whom they feel pressurise them about weight, but patients are often more upset at being fat than at the discussion.”

But one GP from Berkshire said it was “ridiculous” for doctors to worry about causing offence.

“We have to all stop being so politically correct and if we offend patients, bad luck,” said Dr Robert Koefman, from Binfield Surgery, in Bracknell. “If weight is the problem tell them so.”

East London-based GP Dr Tope Ajayi said that he had seen many patients with chronic knee pain, exacerbated by their heavy weight, yet had hesitated to raise the matter.

He said he had “weighed up whether or not it's worth bringing the fact the patient's weight may be contributing to their pain for fear of it negatively affecting my relationship with the patient”.

But Dr Ajayi said that not broaching the subject could lead to unnecessary medical investigatoins when in fact the patient’s weight should be raised first.

And he said he had “hidden” his computer screen to shield patients from the word “obse

He added that he has also 'hidden' on-screen QOF prompts from patients including the word “obese” so that the patient “didn't feel bad or assume it was the doctor that had written obese on their notes'.

And a Kent GP said he did not think doctors should be pushed into discussing weight with their patients, as it was a social issue, not a clinical one.

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'I am a doctor, not a social secretary,' the GP said.

Last year the study by Oxford University tracked almost 1,900 overweight and obese patients who went to see their family doctors for a consultation which was unrelated to their weight.

Half were advised to sign up for weight-loss classes, run by the likes of Slimming World.

The rest were given advice that losing weight would help their health.

Those attending 12-week slimming courses saw weight fall by an average of almost 10lbs, at the end of the year-long study, the Lancet study found.

Even those who were simply given advice to tackle their weight saw a small reduction in weight, of around 2 lbs.

Each of the referrals took an average of 30 seconds, making it a good use of GPs’ time, researchers said.

The lead author Paul Aveyard, a practising GP, said doctors should be “much less worried” about offending their patients, given the evidence that such interventions work.

Under the Nice advice, up to two thirds of the population could be eligible for state-funded slimming classes, with priority given to those who are clinically obese.

The guidance from 2014 suggests the cost of funding 12 week courses run by providers such as Weightwatchers will be outweighed by the potential savings to the NHS if Britain can contain the obesity epidemic.