Press Release: Tuesday 4 March 20205
Chief Medical Officer Professor Mary Horgan and team visit St. Columcille’s Hospital Centre for Obesity Management on World Obesity Day
The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Mary Horgan, and a small delegation of Department of Health and Health Service Executive officials today visited the Centre for Obesity Management in St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown.
The Centre is a national service which provides obesity care across St Columcille’s Hospital, St Michael’s Hospital, and St Vincent’s University Hospital. This aligns to levels 3 and 4 of the HSE Model of Care for Adults Living with Overweight and Obesity.
The delegation met with members of the multidisciplinary team, which includes dietitians, physiotherapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers, administration staff, specialist nurses, bariatric physicians and bariatric surgeons. The delegation also toured the Centre’s facilities at St Columcille’s Hospital.
Professor Horgan said:
“I am delighted to be here today to see the exemplary work of the Centre for Obesity Management team at St. Columcille’s Hospital, particularly the cohesion of the multidisciplinary team and the evident expertise and compassion shown in their service delivery.
“Obesity is a chronic, relapsing disease, and is itself a leading risk factor for many other diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many types of cancer.
“We know that prevention of obesity is key to enabling people to optimise their health and reduce the risk of developing many non-communicable diseases. However, there are significant numbers of people living with obesity in Ireland whose health is impaired by obesity. Delivering treatment and management of obesity services through our health services is really important to improving health outcomes for patients.”
The Model of Care for the Management of Overweight and Obesity, launched in 2021 and funded by the Department of Health since 2022 sets out the services required, who should provide them, and where the services should be delivered across the healthcare system for children, young people and adults living with overweight and obesity.
Budget 2025 provided €1 million to complete the roll out of Phase One of the Model of Care which includes services for children and young people in HSE South East, adult services in Mallow, and finance to start the roll out of Phase Two and continue to expand services nationally.
Professor Donal O’Shea, HSE Clinical Lead said:
“World Obesity Day is an important annual milestone where, as an obesity programme within the HSE, we take stock on progress made over the last year. There has been major progress in the past year. The obesity programme has moved into the chronic disease area within the HSE structure, with the support of Colm Henry our Chief Clinical Officer. We have had increased support from the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Mary Horgan and her team at the Department of Health, with significant additional funding allocated in Budget 2025. The CMO’s visit to the centre today is testament to this support. In her first days in office, Minister Carroll MacNeill reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to addressing obesity and was instrumental to the success of the visit from the World Health Organisation to learn from obesity initiatives in Ireland.”
Professor Horgan said:
“It is important on World Obesity Day to acknowledge the significant progress that has been made in developing services for adults and children living with obesity here in Ireland and to thank the dedicated teams delivering these services.
“However, with 60% of our adult population living with overweight or obesity, we need to develop and deliver more initiatives to promote healthy eating and active living, to change the unhealthy food environment we live in and to increase treatment and management services for those living with obesity. Work on a new obesity policy for 2026 onwards is underway to address all these issues.”