FIREFIGHTERS are being called out three times a week to help lift obese patients in Hampshire at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds, the Tories claimed yesterday.
They said there had been at least 1,784 call-outs across England in the past five years - including 180 in Hampshire - putting increased strain on the emergency service.
Cases in the county included an elderly man being lifted to the ground floor of a property and then to an ambulance, a woman helped from her bedroom to an ambulance, another elderly woman patient assisted to an ambulance, a "large male" removed from a first floor bedroom, and another to hospital.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Shadow Health Minister Mike Penning showed Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service's 180 call-outs cost £412,020.
Mr Penning said the incidents showed how the NHS was struggling to cope with the obesity epidemic.
"As a former firefighter, I am concerned at these figures," he said.
"They show the severe strain that the growing obesity epidemic is putting our emergency services under.
"Labour's complacent attitude to tackling obesity has meant that years have been wasted in our bid to deal with this growing problem.
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