What is RIO?
The Rotherham Institute for Obesity is a specialist centre for weight management, for both adults and children, and offers a medically supervised weight management programme.
This is an individualised programme, tailored to the individual, intended primarily for:
The RIO weight management programme was established in 2008 by Clinical Manager, Dr Matt Capehorn, who was Clinical Director of the UK’s National Obesity Forum (NOF) for 7 years, and it was based on the NHS weight management service that he developed in 2002.
From 2009-17 it provided the “tier 3” specialist weight management service for the population of Rotherham for the NHS, and during this time it was the biggest and busiest specialist weight management service in the UK, based in a primary care setting. It formed part of the award-winning Rotherham Health Weight Framework that in 2009 won the overall NHS Health and Social Care Award for Excellence in Commissioning.
RIO is based in the Rotherham “Health Village” that was built in 2004, on the site of the original Rotherham Hospital on the Doncaster Gate site, and as such benefits from excellent access and public transport routes. It forms part of Clifton Medical Centre, and as such benefits from all of the support and services offered by a busy general practice.
The NHS service was formally opened by Professor David Haslam, Chair of the National Obesity Forum, on 6 November 2009, during National Obesity Awareness Week.
RIO is not currently available to access on the NHS.
There is another section on this website dedicated to information about the structure and success of RIO NHS, made available to those interested in our NHS history.
Cost-effectiveness of weight loss programmes
Private weight loss programmes can appear expensive. However, their cost needs to be put into the context of your health and quality of life.
What price would you put on feeling, and being, healthier, less unwell, with better control of any medical conditions, or reduced likelihood of developing serious medical conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart attack, and certain cancers?
Obesity is linked with causing or worsening over 50 medical conditions, which also include those that affect quality of life, such as respiratory conditions like asthma and COPD, osteoarthritis, gout, fertility problems etc.
Some people are tempted by bariatric surgery to try and lose weight. In the private sector this can be very expensive, and is not guaranteed to provide lasting weight loss. However, for the right person surgery is a cost-effective option. We can offer assessments as to whether you might benefit from this type of intervention, and work with you to optimise your chances of a successful outcome. However, in most cases, we believe that we can find more tailored cost-effective, or cheaper, alternatives that will work just as well.
In August 2017, Public Health England published evidence stating that specialist “tier 3” weight management services, like RIO, are cost-effective. RIO in particular has a wealth of published data that demonstrates that its weight loss programme is highly effective for weight loss.
Even though we will try to find you the cheapest effective treatment that is tailored for your personal situation, we know that it can still become expensive over time, and so offer different finance options to suit everyone, and to facilitate a bespoke service.
If you would like an intervention that is not listed on our website, then please contact RIO to see if we can help.
What can you expect with the standard RIO weight loss programme
All patients engaging with one of our structured weight management programmes will receive