FIREFIGHTERS from Notts have been called to help ambulance crews lift, move or release dozens of patients because they were so fat.
Figures obtained by the Post show Notts Fire and Rescue Service has been called 69 times to incidents since 2009.
From 2010 to 2011 there was a 42 per cent increase, from 14 to 20, in what the fire service categorise as "bariatric assists" – which is where East Midlands Ambulance Service is forced to enlist the help of the fire service to get a patient to hospital because the ambulance service is unable to move them.
Firefighter and chairman of the Fire Brigades Union Phil Coates said he had attended a number of calls of this nature.
He said: "We often have to take doors off hinges or pop windows out to get these people out. We are a humanitarian service, so we will always help if we can, but they are often very difficult jobs and I know they are costly. Sometimes we have to roll people on to a big sheet, and I have seen eight or nine fireman struggle to lift them."
Mr Coates said some of the people he had helped to move weighed over 25 stone. In 2011, most of the calls for assistance were in Mansfield or Nottingham. So far this year, firefighters have been called to 11 incidents, mostly in the Newark area.
A fire service spokesman said: "Our role is to provide humanitarian assistance in an emergency to help save lives and, if our colleagues at EMAS need our help to move a patient who needs urgent medical treatment, then we will do our best to support them.''
Asked how costly these procedures were, he said: "We don't record our various activities to this level of detail. It would depend upon what was required – whether it's moving a patient or having to remove a wall to get them out.
"There are lots of variables, plus our staff are being paid whether they are attending an emergency call or not, so the cost is the same to us."
An EMAS spokesman said: ''New ambulances have stretchers and specialised carrying equipment which allows us to deal with the vast majority of bariatric patients. There are isolated occasions when we ask fire service colleagues to assist but we try to keep these to a minimum.''
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