Obesity could be affecting 1000

There could be as many as a 1000 people in the Wanganui region classified as obese, with a high number classified as morbidly obese
The surgery will be done at Wakefield Hospital in Wellington with the operations handled by one of the larger public hospitals in future
Laparoscopic sleeve surgery is a surgical weight-loss procedure in which the stomach is reduced to about 25 per cent of its original size. The procedure permanently reduces the size of the stomach and is not reversible
Whanganui allocated three weight loss surgeries to tackle problem
The health of as many as 1000 people in the Wanganui health district could be compromised by obesity.
The Whanganui District Health Board has no accurate data on the exact number but it believes the arrival of Government funding for specialist surgery is expected to give it the precise numbers.
Under the new funding local GPs can refer morbidly obese patients for treatment and WDHB has been allocated three laparoscopic sleeve surgeries.
However, the board expects public expectations to easily exceed that allocation.
Tracey Schiebli, the board's general manager for health planning, improvement and funding, said there could be more than 1000 people across the Wanganui region who could meet the criteria for surgery but there was not accurate data at this stage.
Board member Michael Laws said it was a "huge number" and he wanted to know how many of them were at a stage where their health was threatened.
Mrs Schiebli said she suspected the number of morbidly obese among that 1000-plus was "really high".
Earlier this year six Central Districts DHBs, including Whanganui, sought the interest of providers able to handle the special surgical procedures.
In the first year the operations will be carried out by Wakefield private hospital in Wellington but in the future one of the larger lower North Island hospitals was expected to develop a bariatric programme to handle the cases.
The Ministry of Health is developing a set of referral criteria based largely on those used by Counties Manukau DHB which has been running a bariatric pilot programme in recent years.
Board CEO Julie Patterson said that now the policy was in place WDHB could start receiving referrals.
"This will give us our first real indication of how big this problem is in our region," Mrs Patterson said.
Board member Judith MacDonald said her concern was that the process meant a "convoluted journey" for any of the patients, involving two different DHBs (Whanganui and MidCentral) and then a private provider (Wakefield Hospital).
WDHB will be responsible for selecting the patients for the operation. Meantime, Wanganui GPs have been asked to review their patient registers for those who may be candidates.