33% OF SLIMMING CENTRES NOT UP TO SCRATCH

Edition: 525

After visiting 103 centres which offer to help people lose weight, the Consumer Eroski magazine reported that two out of three did not deliver on their claims. The centres visited were located all over the country, from La Coruña in Galicia, to Oviedo, Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pamplona, Vitoria in the north; Valladolid, Madrid and Zaragoza in the centre, Barcelona in the north east, then south to Valencia, Alicante, Murcia Granada, Malaga, Sevilla and Cordoba. The researchers reported that the centre in La Coruña was the best and the worst were in Malagfa, Murcia, Pamplona and Vitoria. Just over half the centres did not give a physical examination to would-be slimmers, while 42% did not bother to weigh them. Two thirds of the centres did not take patients' blood pressure or even ask about it. Some of the centres ask up to 3,800 euros for treatments which are so glaringly deficient.