Overweight to get free slim classes

Thousands of overweight people in the West Midlands are to be given free weight loss classes that could cost taxpayers around £1 million.

The move, being funded by Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust, will see around 10,000 people aged over 45 and classed in danger of becoming obese offered vouchers to attend 12-week courses.

It comes a day after Wolverhampton was included in a nationwide "fat map" as the 15th most overweight area in the UK.

Companies such as WeightWatchers and Rosemary Conley are currently bidding for the contract but doctors expect to be able to send people on the courses in the New Year, when most people start thinking about losing weight.

Health chiefs today refused to reveal how much it would cost even though it is taxpayers' money.

But to use WeightWatchers at full commercial rates would cost £119.70 per person, a total of almost £1.2 million.

Dr Louise Massey, consultant in public health at Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust, said: "We will be offering this to people with a body mass index (BMI) that shows they are getting towards obese.

"They will be able to take a 12-week voucher to attend a class. If they lose five per cent of their body weight they can come back for another voucher.

"At the moment we will be offering it to people over the age of 45 but it could be opened up to everybody. For people in later life their weight is a key issue because it can lead to problems with blood pressure and diabetes." Yesterday it was revealed that one in ten people in Wolverhampton is obese.

Dr Massey said part of the problem in the Black Country stemmed from a move from people working in manufacturing jobs, where they were active at work, to doing jobs where they sit behind a desk.

She said that small changes such as walking a mile a day and cutting out snacks could lead to someone losing as much as 10kg. "We have a preliminary budget but it may expand or shrink before the contracts are finalised so I don't want to discuss the funding at this stage."

Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust was given an extra £32 million by the Department of Health to spend during the year. Around £840,000 will be ploughed into supporting people to give up smoking, take exercise, manage their diet, maintain their sexual health and change their lifestyles to increase their life expectancy.

Estimates from 2002 show that obese people cost the economy £7 billion in treatment, benefits and loss of earnings.