Record numbers of obese kids need urgent NHS treatment as cases double in five years

RECORD numbers of obese kids are needing urgent NHS treatment.

Cases have doubled in five years, with 30 children a day being seen by doctors.

Many of their health conditions — including damaged joints, high blood pressure and diabetes — used to only be found in adult patients.

Experts fear a toxic combination of poor diet and inactivity, made worse by the Covid pandemic, is at fault.

NHS Digital figures show the number of obese under-18s seen in hospital hit 11,877 last year.

It is more than double the 5,557 treated in 2015/16.

Oversized kids suffering from potentially fatal sleep apnoea doubled in five years to reach 630 in 2019/20.

‘TIME BOMB’

There was a 271 per cent rise in stomach reflux cases, linked with being overweight and scoffing fatty foods.

Diabetes diagnoses rose by 259 per cent.

PM Boris Johnson has pledged £100million to beat obesity.

Free fat-fighting classes will be offered to 700,000 Brits after damning research found obesity is fuelling needless Covid deaths.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said more needs to be done.

He said: “The time bomb has well and truly exploded. Only a fraction of these children should ever be treated in hospital for obesity – let alone the conditions triggered by it.

“If past governments had implemented proper strategies to tackle this avoidable epidemic the total might have been in the low hundreds but not in thousands.

“Boris Johnson has vowed to halve today’s figures by 2030 but even his independent advisers predict he won’t unless he introduces draconian measures that should have been in place years ago.

“Expect hospital admissions to rise further.”