On Monday 27 July the government released its  new 'Tackling Obesity' strategy. The governments new package of measures and 'Better Health' campaign announced to help people lose weight in light of the increased risks of complications in correlation wit obesity when catching COVID-19,

Dr David Selwyn, CPOC Director, said: 

"In the last few months we have seen that excess weight and poor lifestyle choices puts individuals at risk of worse outcomes from coronavirus (COVID-19). The government has released its ‘Tackling Obesity’ strategy in an effort to empower patients to take control of their lifestyle and reduce the risk of severe outcomes in the event of contracting COVID-19.

The Centre of Perioperative Care (CPOC) fully supports the government’s drive to tackle the mounting issue that is societal obesity. Whilst this is clearly important in the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is equally important for patients awaiting planned surgery and provides a real opportunity for patients to share responsibility and lose weight ensuring clinicians and patients work together to improve perioperative care outcomes.

The strategy echo’s CPOCs aims of empowering the individual to take control of their health and understand the role it can play in their own outcomes, the importance of shared decision making between clinician and patient and how addressing the whole perioperative pathway can reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care patients receive."