ALMOST 200 operations to help people lose weight have been carried out in the Greater Glasgow area in the last four years.

Statistics obtained by the Liberal Democrats show hospitals in and around the city carried out 189 bariatric procedures, which include gastric bands and gastric bypasses.

In the last five years across Scotland, more than 900 such operations have been carried out.

LibDem Health spokesman Jim Hume says he is concerned that the majority of the ops were carried out on women and he believes there is pressure on women to conform to an idealised body image.

In Greater Glasgow and Clyde in the last year there were 45 procedures on women but just eight on men.

Mr Hume said that with obesity levels between men and women fairly equal there are clearly other factors at play.

He said: "Health professionals are best placed to help patients make informed decisions, but Scottish ministers have a duty to tackle the pressures placed on women to conform to an idealistic type of body image.

"It is concerning that these more drastic types of weight-loss surgery do not reflect the real picture of obesity in Scotland.

"If Scotland is to get a grip with its obesity crisis it must be done in a healthy and sustainable way."

Mr Hume said the statistics showed 70% of weight loss operations were on women and believes that as a society we place too much emphasis on how a person looks rather than how they feel.

The spokesman for Health also criticised the images that we see in Christmas adverts and articles about weight-loss, which he believes add to the pressure on women to lose weight.

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk