Firefighters being called out to move more than 40 obese people a WEEK
And some rescues last year took up more than half their working day.
2
Crews were required to help move overweight people in their homes so often that training now involves 250kg dummies and specialist lifting equipment.
Figures show fire crews were called 2,280 times in England to help with bariatric rescues — a rise of five per cent on 2023.
It is four times the 489 people helped a decade ago.
Last year, 289 overweight people were each helped for more than two hours, with 53 rescues taking four hours or more.
Experts said increasing numbers of people could not leave their homes and when an emergency struck they needed help.
On occasions, fire crews have to remove doors to assist.
One of the longest rescues was in Acton, West London, in 2023 when crews smashed a wall in a 17-hour op to rescue a 315kg heart attack victim.
In 2020, Jason Holton was lifted by a crane from his third-storey window in Camberley, Surrey.
The number of rescues of obese people last year was higher than the callouts to save pets from heights and calls for children trapped in lifts.
It comes after a survey found ambulance services spent almost £30million on vehicles and equipment to transport obese patients in the past five years.
BMI threshold for obesity should LOWERED to 27 - as experts warn millions at risk of silent killers are 'missed'
Chair of the National Obesity Forum Tam Fry said: 'Despite the successes of weight loss drugs, bariatric rescues will be needed for some time to come.'
2
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Action demanded as North Shields dental surgery limits NHS care
Concern over a dental surgery's decision to stop taking on NHS patients has prompted calls for a solution to be found "urgently".Verne Road Dental Practice in North Shields blamed financial and staffing strains for its move to limit NHS access to children, vulnerable adults and those in acute North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) said it was working with the company, which had seen three dentists leave in the past two a letter to North Tyneside mayor Karen Clark, Conservative opposition leader Liam Bones said: "Given the urgency of the situation, I am calling on you to immediately convene the North Tyneside Dental Taskforce." Bones said the meeting "should bring together local dentists, NHS England representatives, public health officials, and councillors from all parties".The practice has informed patients it would use its "small NHS contract" to prioritise the selected group with everyone else invited to sign up for a private said it was facing challenges including "funding, increasing staff and material costs as well as recruitment difficulties" and was having to make "crucial decisions to ensure our practice survives". Reassuring dental patients Many patients had expressed their confusion and concerns online, the Local Democracy Reporting Service Labour MP Sir Alan Campbell urged the surgery to provide urgent treatments at commenting on his social media post said the changes were "devastating" and it was "impossible to find NHS dentist in the area".North Tyneside Council director of public health, Wendy Burke, said she was concerned about access to NHS dental services in the area and about the impact of the decision "now and in the future". ICB chief procurement and contracting officer David Gallagher said the practice was in a difficult situation but "they have not asked to end their contract and they remain an NHS service provider"."We are working with the provider with a view to fully understanding the issues, offering support where possible and to provide clarity and reassurance to patients," he said. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
‘I'd rather die than go back there': How a vulnerable teenager was failed by a scandal-hit hospital
Traumatised by months of forced feeding and isolation from her family on a secure psychiatric ward, 14-year-old Ruth Szymankiewicz fled her family home through a toilet window and flung herself into a freezing pond in a desperate attempt to get someone to listen. 'I'd rather die than go back to Huntercombe,' the teenager had warned just hours before her father Mark, dragged her from the icy water near their Berkshire home just after Christmas 2021. Two months later, Ruth was dead. The teenager died in hospital two days after having self-harmed when she was left unsupervised at Huntercombe Hospital in Maidenhead, where she should have had constant supervision. Her death sparked a three-year-long police investigation, which found the agency worker responsible for her care was working under a fake name and had completed just a day or a day and a half of online training before his first shift on the understaffed ward Ruth was on. Police were not able to question the worker, known as Ebo Achempong, as he had fled the country. Last week, a jury at her inquest made a rare ruling that her death amounted to an unlawful killing after a litany of failings in her care were uncovered at the 10-day hearing. Ruth, who had an eating disorder, Tourette syndrome and a tic condition, was placed at Huntercombe in October 2021 because her mental health had declined and she required feeding through a tube after refusing to eat. But while there, she was denied therapy to help her manage the often painful and traumatic tube feeding that kept her alive, she was left without regular access to psychologists and was only allowed to see her family twice a week. On a much-anticipated trip home for Christmas in 2021, the teenager was happy to be reunited with her family. But she soon became anxious about her return to Huntercombe and protested over being sent back. The night before she was to return, she self-harmed, and when it was time to leave, she squeezed herself out of a small downstairs toilet window and ran. Her father, Mark, followed her and watched on, horrified, as she entered the "icy bog", pleading with her to come out. When she refused, he pulled her out because she was becoming critically hypothermic, her inquest heard. He carried her back to the house, where the family warmed her up, but when the secure transport finally arrived to take her back to Huntercombe, the situation that unfolded left them 'absolutely broken'. In a statement read at the inquest, Ruth's mother Kate recounted the horrifying ordeal: 'We had to watch our daughter handcuffed and her legs taped together so that they could restrain her to get her into the transport. Our daughter was screaming throughout the whole ordeal. This was a breaking point for Mark and I. 'It absolutely broke us to see our daughter being treated this way and seeing her so distressed, but there was no other option given to us apart from for her to be sectioned and taken to Huntercombe, as nowhere else could help. We felt helpless. I think that Ruth also felt that she could see no way out of this.' Ruth's despair at her time spent on the Thames ward at Huntercombe was laid bare further in a handwritten note found after her death. Addressing it to 'important people', she complained about a lack of therapy for patients like her at the hospital, which she said had an 'unsafe number of staff'. The note read: 'I don't really know who this is really directed to... Huntercombe, it doesn't deserve a capital H. 'It is the s***test mental health institution you could get... the unsafe number of staff, how the place makes you worse, the staff literally sleep on their shifts. I don't want this to happen to any other patients ever. My suggestion is, shut this place down.' Eventually, more than a year after Ruth's death, Huntercombe Maidenhead, or Taplow Manor as it was renamed, was shut after a series of investigations by The Independent and Sky News, which revealed allegations of 'systemic abuse'. Patients sent to Huntercombe Group hospitals revealed how they felt like 'caged animals', with claims they were subjected to painful, bruising restraints, medicated so heavily they felt like 'zombies', and isolated from their families. Ruling that Ruth's death amounted to 'unlawful killing', jurors said there had been systematic failings not only at Huntercombe but by the NHS mental health system that funded her placement at the private equity-owned hospital. Clutching Ruth's stuffed Giraffe as they listened to harrowing evidence of their daughter's time at Huntercombe, her parents described how just a few years earlier, she had been happy. They recounted how their first-born child – a little girl 'with a head of bright red hair' - was a fiery and determined character with a 'huge heart', a 'deep passion for life' and a love of animals and the outdoors. But in December 2020, she suddenly developed physical and vocal tics, and the family faced an 18-month wait to access specialist care. In 2021, she developed an eating disorder and by August, she was admitted to Salisbury Hospital before she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Eventually, NHS officials decided she needed to be admitted to a specialist children's mental health unit, and she was taken to Huntercombe. Her parents told the inquest they felt pressured into agreeing to the move, and were soon 'trapped' in a system that was meant to care for Ruth, but instead 'locked her away and harmed her'. During her time at the hospital, the vulnerable teenager was allowed unfettered access to her mobile phone, which she was later found to have used to search for methods of self-harm. Throughout the inquest, multiple staff voiced concerns over short staffing in the unit, with a visibly distressed senior support worker, Michelle Hance, breaking down as she spoke detailed the pressures on workers. Dr Gillian Combe, a senior NHS doctor working for the Thames Valley provider collaborative, which was responsible for Ruth's admission to Huntercombe, admitted that the NHS did not do enough for the 14-year-old. She told the inquest the NHS was aware that the hospital was understaffed daily, and that there were concerns over the care it provided, but there were no other suitable choices available. She appeared to make a plea for more money to build the beds it 'desperately needed'. Standing outside of the Berkshire court room after the inquest concluded, Mark and Kate made a heartfelt plea for Ruth's story to matter: 'Remember Ruth's story. Remember her in the faces of the young people who look to you for help and support.' 'What happened to Ruth is shocking, tragic and harrowing. Whilst there is much more to be said, if change can come from her story, it can make a tangible difference to others.' In response to the ruling, Active Care Group, formerly known as The Huntercombe Group, said: 'We extend our heartfelt condolences to Ruth's family, friends, and all those affected by her passing. We deeply regret the tragic event that occurred, and we are truly sorry for the distress this has caused and recognise the profound impact it has had on everyone who knew her.' The group said it was disappointed that a third-party company it had hired had breached its terms of contract, though it did not state what the breach of contract was. It also said it had made improvements to the quality and safety of its services since.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
West Midlands measles vaccine plea ahead of school term
Parents are being urged by health officials to make sure their children are vaccinated before the return to school as measles cases still circulate in the West of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jabs by age five is as low as 75.8% in parts of the region, according the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - the World Health Organisation recommends a 95% uptake to prevent comes after Birmingham saw an outbreak in 2025 with 26 confirmed cases between January and June, government figures Spence, from the UKHSA, described measles as a "nasty virus" that can spread quickly among unvaccinated children and adults in places like schools and nurseries. "It can lead to serious health problems including ear and chest infections, inflammation of the brain, with some children ending up in hospital and being left with permanent disabilities. Tragically, in rare cases, it can even be fatal," she said."As children under the age of one cannot be vaccinated against measles, it's important siblings are vaccinated to protect little ones and other vulnerable people – including those with weakened immune systems – who are unable to have the MMR vaccine and rely on the rest of us to protect them from measles."She added that if parents are unsure about their child's vaccination record, they can check their Red Book, the NHS app or contact their GP surgery. In 2024, figures from the UKHSA showed 329 of 465 (71%) measles cases across England from October 2023 to February 2024 were in the West Midlands.A GP in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham said at the time that, in the majority of cases, medics were seeing were in unvaccinated latest measles data from the UKHSA this summer revealed that there have been 674 laboratory-confirmed measles cases reported in England since 1 January, with 145 in 3-31 West Midlands had 34 out of the 674 cases. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
