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#GPnews: GP wins £2,500 bet after losing five stones in bid to inspire patients

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14:30 A self-proclaimed ‘fat’ GP from Sheffield has won £2,500 after betting, at 50-1 odds, that she could lose five stone in a year in a bid to inspire her patients to eat healthy and exercise.

Dr Libby Collins, 37, weighed 18 stone when she started out, and got motivated when she realised her weight was making patients feel better about not achieving their own weight loss goals.

Dr Collins told the Sheffield Star how she used a step-counter to track 10,000 steps a day, and made gradual changes to her eating habits rather than expensive fitness plans.

‘I am a busy mum-of-two and wanted to lose the weight with sensible eating and increased activity, I wanted to do it that way, so I could tell my patients it can be done… and as they don’t have a lot of spare cash, so expensive diet plans and gym memberships are no good.’

9:25 The main health story this morning revolves around CCGs’ plans to limit hip and knee operations to those patients who are in so much pain that they cannot sleep.

Board papers from NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG, NHS South Worcestershire CCG, and NHS Wyre Forest CCG – uncovered by HSJ – reveal that they will only treat the ’severe to the upper end of moderate’ cases. The documents said this is when a ’patient’s pain and disability should be sufficiently severe that it interferes with the patient’s daily life and/or ability to sleep’.

Julie Wood, the chief executive of the NHS Clinical Commissioners, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programe: ’Clearly the NHS doesn’t have unlimited resources. And it has to ensure that patients get the best possible care against a backdrop of spiralling demand and increasing financial pressures.’