Is enough being done to ensure people living with obesity receive equal access to care? PEP health blog (19 October 2021)

Summary

In this blog, Dr Meghan Leaver, cofounder of PEP Health discusses factors that may prevent people living with obesity and overweight disease conditions from accessing high quality care. She argues that the current NHS focus on healthcare equality should extend to improving access and satisfaction amongst patients living with obesity.

The author makes the case that the NHS is not weight inclusive, referring to a recent study in The Lancet that showed that people who identified as being overweight had significantly lower perceptions of the quality of care they were receiving compared with those who didn’t. She highlights that the issue disproportionately affects people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and calls for policy that empowers people to live healthier lifestyles.