The number of cases of weight-loss stomach surgery performed on obese people by the NHS is soaring in Bradford, a report from the NHS Information Centre shows.

Nationally, the NHS performed 4,220 bariatric procedures – such as gastric bands, gastric bypasses and sleeve gastrectomy – on obese people in 2008/09 compared to 1,950 in 2006/07.

The report also includes new analyses on the health outcomes of people who are overweight and obese as well as a summary of already published diet, exercise and weight-related information.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust became a specialist centre for bariatric surgery last year. As a result, 100 weight loss operations will be carried out at BRI this year, compared to 37 last year.

By taking patients from across Yorkshire, it is hoped to increase the number of weight loss operations to 200 next year, of which up to 60 will be patients from the Bradford district.

The majority (90 per cent) of operations are gastric bypass, with five per cent gastric bands and five per cent sleeve gastrectomy and each costs the NHS £10,000.

Clare Smart, head of planned care strategic development at NHS Bradford and Airedale, said: “We currently offer bariatric (weight loss) surgery to patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of 50, or 45 if they also have long-term medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, including diabetes and heart disease.

“This is a service commissioned regionally by Yorkshire and the Humber Specialised Commissioning Group, and we provide this service within the same treatment criteria as neighbouring PCTs.

“Over the past year a higher than normal number of local patients have had bariatric surgery because we were clearing a waiting list of people who required this surgery. This backlog was due to a limited number of hospitals providing this specialised surgery, but since Bradford Royal Infirmary, among others, became a specialist centre for bariatric surgery in 2009 we have been able to treat more patients.

“Our waiting list has now been cleared and we expect a maximum of 60 new patients will have surgery in 2010/11.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Independent guidance on obesity by Nice recommends that surgery should always be a last resort and a healthier diet and more activity should be tried first. It is up to the NHS locally to decide what’s best for their patients – treating patients with drugs or recommending surgery is rightly a clinical decision.”