Weight there for a moment

OVER half the adult population of North Wales is overweight or obese, according to latest figures.  The Executive Director of Public Health, Andrew Jones, says "Throughout Wales 57% of the adult population is categorised as overweight or obese, with the lowest North Wales percentage  – 53% – being in Conwy and Wrexham.

The report also highlights serious drug problems in north west Wales. In 2008 in Anglesey there were 331 men admitted to hospital due to drugs, with Gwynedd second in the table on 197 and Flintshire lowest on 105.

 Anglesey also has the highest number of alcohol-related admissions to hospital among males, whilst the highest figure for hospital admission and deaths among females is in Conwy.

Now here's a thought; in their bid to reduce costs and the impressively large deficit with which the mismanagement of the banking world has landed us, might the new coalition government start to think about criteria for hospital admissions?  What would be the validity of creating categories of patients which were then ranked in order of treatment priority?

Superficially, this idea has some attractions. Making the drunk who'd fallen down the stairs wait longer than the elderly grandmother who slipped on the ice seems to have some merit.  And should the drug abuser be made to wait for their treatment until the cancer patient had finished?  And what about the habitual violent offenders, who often attack the very people trying to treat them? Should they even be given access to A & E? But there's also the obese, the smoker, the McDonalds' addict...

At a time when the new government is seeking cuts, some of these ideas may seem tempting - but at what cost?