LISTEN: Ambulances weighed down by obesity burden
The Scottish Ambulance Service's patient transport service had to provide bariatric support in 2015-16 for over 20,000 patients.
The use of ambulances to take obese patients to non-emergency appointments has nearly doubled in the last five years, according to figures highlighted by the Scottish Conservatives.
The Scottish Ambulance Service's non-emergency patient transport service (PTS) had to provide bariatric support for over 20,000 patients in 2015-16 - that's up from 11,000 in 2011-12.
Of those 20,000 there were around 3,000 from NHS Highland and Grampian.
The national figure is down slightly on 2014-15, when the service provided bariatric support for 20,915 patients.
The Tories said the figures were more proof that obesity was becoming one of Scotland's major public health crises and putting additional strain on the ambulance service.
Obesity levels could reach 40% by 2030, according to the Scottish Health Survey.
Tory public health spokesman Miles Briggs said:
"I think it's deeply worrying that we've seen almost a doubling of patients requiring specialist help from the Ambulance Service since 2011, and it really points towards a national problem with obesity, and something as a Scottish Government we need to address early on"
Meanwhile a spokeswoman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Nationally, we currently transfer just under 900,000 patients to and from their healthcare appointments, of whom approximately 2% may require additional specialist support due to obesity"
"While the number of bariatric patient journeys has steadily increased over the last few years, in the course of 2015/16 we have seen a small decrease in the overall number of bariatric patients conveyed by PTS"
"We continue to invest in training and equipment to ensure bariatric patients receive appropriate care and can be moved safely.''