Independent Nurse: Editorial - It's time to ring-fence public health funds.(Editorial)

According to the Foresight report, a government inquiry into obesity published earlier this month, 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 26 per cent of children and young people will be obese by 2050.

Incidence of type-2 diabetes is set to rise by 70 per cent; stroke by 30 per cent; and CHD by 20 per cent, the report said. And by 2050 obesity-related diseases will cost the nation an extra pounds 45.5 billion a year in both direct costs to the NHS and indirect costs, such as the financial implications of those obese people who are unable to work.

Against this backdrop it is disheartening to see that PCTs in England have been using money earmarked for …