Obesity care should be included in the structured chronic disease management (CDM) programme in general practice, according to a GP specialising in the area.
Dr Michael Crotty said that currently GPs are not sufficiently resourced to provide obesity care.
“The challenge in general practice is that we have ever increasing amounts of work,” Dr Crotty said.
“And, certainly, when it comes to obesity, [GPs] are not adequately supported or resourced to treat it in primary care at the moment.”
Dr Crotty said that obesity should be included in the CDM programme because it is a lifelong health issue.
“It should be treated like we treat other chronic diseases,” he argued. “It is not more or less important.”
Dr Crotty said that currently the CDM programme is targeting some of the complications of obesity, such as hypertension and diabetes, but not one of their main underlying causes.
He also stated there was a need for greater acknowledgement by some healthcare professionals that obesity is a chronic disease.
“They still have this old-fashioned thought that it is an issue of lifestyle, motivation, and willpower, despite all the scientific evidence telling us that is not the case,” he said.
“The evidence tells us obesity is genetically linked, it is neurologically regulated, and is certainly heavily environmentally influenced too.”
However, Dr Crotty said there is increasing recognition of the issue within general practice, and pointed to the work the ICGP has conducted to raise awareness. See news feature, P10.
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