Government ‘passing the buck’ on child obesity
By Evelyn Ring
AS the country’s children get fatter, the Government has been accused of ignoring childhood obesity by giving the responsibility of tackling it to an already overburdened Health Service Executive (HSE).
Dr John O’Riordan of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and a member of the National Task Force on Obesity said a government official should be appointed to respond to the growing health crisis.
He said it was never envisaged by the group that responsibility for implementing the report’s 80-plus recommendations would be given to the HSE.
“It cannot succeed without cross-departmental interaction and without having a government member taking overall responsibility. Clearly, the Government does not see it as one of their priorities,” Dr O’Riordan said.
“The HSE has no direct power; does not attend Cabinet meetings ... It is an abdication of responsibility by the Government,” he said.
His criticisms of the lack of progress in implementing the task force’s recommendations — published 18 months ago — come at time when children as young as two are attending the weight reduction clinic at the National Children’s Hospital in Dublin.
The Tallaght centre is the State’s only public child weight reduction clinic and it is struggling to cope with demand. Consultant paediatrician at the clinic Dr Edna Roche said they had witnessed a significant lowering in the age profile of the children being referred.
“We have found, over the last few years, children are coming earlier with significant obesity and it is becoming more marked,” she said.
Dr O’Riordan said most of the report was about introducing changes in society to make it easier for children to live a healthy life. “That has been totally abdicated by handing it over to the HSE and another waffle group,” he said.
The HSE was given €3 million this year to start implementing the report. A spokesperson for the HSE said it was developing an action plan and a working group “would broaden” to engage with the Department of Health and Children, local authorities, community groups and schools.
Fine Gael’s Health spokesperson Dr Liam Twomey said responsibility should be spread across three government departments — Arts, Sports and Tourism along with Education and Health. “It is not just a health issue at all,” he said, adding that policy changes were needed right across the board to tackle the obesity crisis. “The first thing we must do is make sure that our young children get back into physical activity.”
Obesity in Ireland
Linear Mode
