TREATING the nation's wounds is costing the NHS as many billions of pounds as tackling the obesity epidemic, according to a world-first study carried out by Bradford researchers.

The ground-breaking research, which has now been presented to NHS England, could help cut future costs of diagnosing, treating and managing wounds and eventually benefit millions of patients every year.

Specialists at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) WoundTec Healthcare Technology Co-operative, based at Bradford Royal Infirmary, have found that better diagnosis and treatments of wounds would reduce the estimated £5 billion bill to the NHS - a cost comparable to obesity.

Professor Peter Vowden, honorary clinical director of WoundTec HTC, said: “Wounds impose a substantial health economic burden on the UK’s NHS comparable to that for example of managing obesity.

“Clinical and economic benefits could accrue from improved systems of care and an increased awareness of the impact that wounds impose on patients and the NHS.”

Researchers hope their findings will be used by NHS England to help shape and improve policies on how wound care is delivered.

The study, which has now been published by the BMJ Open Journal and the International Wound Journal, looked at the randomly selected records of 1,000 adult patients with wounds and matched them with 1,000 patients with no wounds.

It found that an estimated 2.2 million wounds are managed by the NHS every year costing about the same as managing the country's obesity problem and that while 60 per cent of wounds healed, 40 per cent did not.

Resource care involved included 18.6 million practice nurse visits, 10.9 million community nurse visits, 7.7 million GP visits and 3.4 million hospital outpatient visits.

The Bradford research also revealed nearly one third of patients were not getting an accurate diagnosis and there was a lack of involvement from specialist nurses and doctors.

The study, conducted by Professor Julian Guest, of Catalyst Health Economics Consultants Ltd, and partly funded by an industry grant, has prompted a call for wound care to become more specialised.

Kevin Mercer, assistant clinical director of WoundTec HTC, said: “Wound care should be seen as a specialised segment of healthcare that requires clinicians with specialist training to diagnose and manage.

"However, evidence shows this is not the case. There is no doubt that better diagnosis and treatment and effective prevention of wound care complications would help minimise treatment costs.”

Bradford’s Wound Tec HTC is one of eight national centres of excellence to research and develop products for the benefits of patients.