Trust consultant appointed obesity adviser to Royal College | News

Congratulations to Dr Kath McCullough, Royal Surrey’s Consultant in bariatric medicine, diabetes and endocrinology and acute medicine, who has been appointed obesity special adviser to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

As part of her new role, Kath will chair the RCP’s Advisory Group on Nutrition, Weight and Health and become a member of the Advisory Group on Health Inequalities.

Reflecting on her appointment, she said: “This is a really exciting time to be involved in shaping service provision and ensuring equal access to interventions aimed at losing weight. It is an opportunity to raise awareness not just to the general public, but also to healthcare professionals, and our role in advocating a healthier lifestyle." 

“There has been a lot of focus on novel treatments recently, particularly in the press and social media. Whilst any new therapies are always welcome, we also need to look at preventative measures and how as a society we look at sustainable models going forwards.”

In 2021-22, 63 per cent of adults and 23.5 per cent of children, aged 10-11, in England were estimated to be overweight or obese. According to the RCP, obesity is the second biggest cause of cancer and costs the NHS around £6.5million a year.

Kath said: “I’m keen to use my new role to highlight key areas and the complex challenges and health inequalities that we need to overcome. Prevention is all important, particularly tackling the problem of childhood obesity, as well as offering access to services to patients.

“Obesity impacts on lots of different specialties, for example musculoskeletal and orthopaedics, heart disease, stroke prevention and diabetes, so if we can tackle being overweight and obesity, we help with all these other things as well. We need system-wide change and a real culture shift nationally. I’m also keen to highlight the importance of collaboration between primary, secondary care and local authorities. We need to bring the right people together in the same room.”

Kath joins a number of medical experts at the RCP who serve as special advisers on topics including tobacco, air quality and alcohol.