Dr. Orla Walsh:

As part of the model of care, in the nine CHOs there can be a multidisciplinary team, including a dietitian, to care for children in the community who are living with obesity. CHO 5 and CHO 7 have been identified as the first two. They started last year, and they are getting up and running now, but the recruitment embargo has had a huge effect and has stalled their ability to start.

We make the argument for a new treatment for obesity. It is a newly-recognised disease and this is a new model of care. We should be resourced and funded separately and we should not be affected by the recruitment embargoes and funding issues like other diseases. If you can treat obesity, you will prevent many other diseases, and if you can treat childhood obesity you will prevent diseases across all the ages.