HEALTH chiefs have promised to stop young Yorkshire women eating their way to becoming the fattest in Europe.
A 10-year masterplan to transform healthcare has halting increasing obesity in the region as one of its top priorities.
An extra 600 lives a year in Yorkshire could also be saved by improving care for stroke patients. Smokers trying to quit will be given free nicotine patches under ambitious plans unveiled by health minister Lord Darzi.
Professor Chris Welsh, who led the review in Yorkshire, said aims included tackling the obesity timebomb: "If we do nothing, in Yorkshire and the Humber within 10 years we will have the highest proportion of the young female population who are obese in the country and probably in Europe.
"That is a huge health challenge."
The regional revamp could also see local hospitals affected as patients needing specialist treatment go to bigger centres like Leeds – but Prof Welsh said any decisions on service changes would be made locally.
Doctors, nurses and the public helped shape the plan for the NHS in Yorkshire over 10 years. Already £150m has been earmarked, but NHS managers admit a huge change in public attitude will also be needed to tackle obesity as well as smoking and alcohol abuse.
Margaret Edwards, chief executive of NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, told trainee medics at the launch in Leeds: "A baby boy born in Bradford is three times more likely to die before his fifth birthday than a baby born in Hambleton. That is shameful.
"It's important we make recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State, but what's really important is that we make it happen."
The plan is part of Lord Darzi's national review of the NHS. Each region is to get a plan drawn up by local experts about how to tackle its specific problems.
Also speaking at the launch, Lord Darzi said: "Healthcare in Yorkshire in years to come will be the premier healthcare in the country."
On the future role of services such as A&E at district general hospitals, he said decisions would be made locally but he could not see any closing.
However he said some patients – like those having a heart attack – would be taken to specialist centres able to carry out the best treatment rather than smaller hospitals which were nearer.
A copy of the full report is available at
www.yorksandhumber.nhs.ukClick here to read about new plans for hospital funding in YorkshireThe full article contains 423 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
