Dutch hospitals are in the process of building special rooms with special beds and toilet facilities to cope with obese patients, the AD says on Friday.

Rotterdam’s Erasmus teaching hospital is currently building rooms capable of taking patients of up to 230 kilos, which will be completed in 2018, the paper says. And the Catharina hospital in Eindhoven has had several so-called XL rooms in its cancer and surgical departments for years.

‘The number of obese people is rising steadily,’ Erasmus obesity professor Liesbeth van Rossum told the paper. ‘It is an illusion to think this is a problem which can be dealt with quickly. So society has to ensure there is proper care.’

Some 43% of the Dutch population are overweight and 12% have serious weight issues. Twenty-five years ago, just 27% of the population was considered too heavy.

Trolleys

‘Most hospitals are not well prepared to deal with obese patients,’ Jos Blik of the Dutch obesity association told the AD.

‘It starts at the accident and emergency departments, where there are no trolleys capable of taking people weighing more than 200 kilos. A normal hospital bed can take up to 170 kilos and most rooms have suspended toilets.’

The shortage of specialist equipment only intensifies the stigma attached to obesity, Van Rossum said. ‘Try sitting on a chair that is too small… it is enormously embarrassing,’ she said. ‘What is stopping us giving these patients a bed or a chair which fits?’