REGIONAL health bosses are planning to double the number of weight loss operations.

About 600 bariatric procedures are carried out by NHS surgeons in the North-East.

However, because of the growing demand for weightloss surgery in the region, NHS commissioners have agreed to fund an additional 600 – making a total of 1,200.

The multi-million-pound contract represents a massive investment in this growing form of surgery.

A spokesman for the Northern Specialised Commissioning Group, which buys specialised surgery treatments for the NHS in the North- East, said the region had some of the highest rates of obesity in the country, with 25 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women classified as being obese.

About two per cent of those are morbidly obese.

The spokeswoman said: “Because we have more people who are morbidly obese, we needed to increase the provision of bariatric surgery.”

While the NHS has a range of initiatives to help people lose weight and become more active through lifestyle changes, the spokesman said that some patients who meet national guidelines may benefit from bariatric surgery.

It could range from a gastric band to the more expensive, and irreversible, gastric bypass.

Operations cost from about £1,000 for a gastric band to £8,000 for a gastric bypass.

However, bariatric surgeons said there was evidence that such surgery can pay for itself quickly because of improvements to the patient’s health and the reduction in NHS treatment they need.

Because of limited capacity at the region’s main bariatric surgery centre, in Sunderland, the commissioners awarded a new contract to hospitals in the south of the region.

The consortium consists of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.