A HEALTH board has had to spend more than £26,000 on a special dentist's chair to fit larger people who need treatment.
The specialist "bariatric" dentist's chair cost NHS Fife £26,394. It will allow a range of dental work to be carried out on patients too large or too heavy to fit in ordinary dental chairs.
It was one of several items of specially-large or specially-strong pieces of equipment bought by the board to cope with a rising tide of the grossly obese requiring NHS help.
According to figures, NHS Fife have spent a total of £42,000 on bariatric equipment since 2011-12.
More than half went on the giant dental chair; other items included a £1,000 specially-designed obese person's commode, a £5,260 bariatric hoist, and a £1,000 exam plinth.
Figures were also released for Tayside and Forth Valley.
In Tayside, more than £160,000 was spent on bariatric equipment including £6,000 on oversized dignity gowns and and £130 on a giant bag. NHS Tayside also spent almost £30,000 on bariatric beds, £20,000 on chairs, and £35,000 on theatre tables.
NHS Forth Valley said it was currently spending some £3,000 per year for the annual hire of three bariatric beds, and in 2013-14 spent around £11,000 on bariatric moving and handling equipment, including lifting kit.
NHS health boards in England and Wales spent £5.5 million over the same period on similar equipment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article