NRI doctor moots tax sops for the healthy in UK

Slim, healthy people and mothers who breastfeed should be given tax credits to encourage a healthier lifestyle, an Indian-born doctor based in the United Kingdom has said.

And at the same time, fat people should be made to take more responsibility for their health and should be made to walk rather than be given mobility scooters, said Dr Kailash Chand, a British Medical Association representative and NHS trust chairman.

The expert, who has been a practising GP in the UK for 25 years, feels some methods of combating obesity problems are actually contributing to them, reports The Daily Express.

"I estimate that something like 50 to 70 per cent of my patients' medical costs would not just be reduced but eliminated if their diets were healthier and they exercised more," said Dr Chand, the chairman of the Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust, near Manchester.

"But we, as a nation, seem to be working on the other end of the problem.

For example, motorised scooters are provided free to morbidly obese patients with weight-dependent arthritis, when the best remedy for these people would be to walk through their pain or avoid excess weight gain in the first place," he said.

He said many of the factors leading to obesity are "societal", adding: "The mother who picks up hungry kids from day-care after working eight hours can be very tempted to stop at a fast-food outlet on her way home.

"In the old days, evening walks and chats with neighbours used to satisfy people's evening leisure needs, but now our reliance on sedentary activity, watching the TV and working on computers has reached epic proportions."