A LIVERPOOL doctor is warning that people who choose to lead unhealthy lives are depriving vulnerable patients of vital services.

Consultant neurologist at Alder Hey, Dr Andrew Curran, said countless people in the city were “squandering” their health by over-eating, smoking and drinking too much.

He said he found it frustrating that NHS funds were sucked away from his young patients, who have no control over their conditions.

He said : “The children I treat have conditions they and their parents could not have prevented, like brain tumours.

“But the NHS all comes from one pot of money, so every time someone stuffs another burger into their face out of his own choice, it makes me angry.

“Not that there is anything wrong with eating a burger – but it is when that is all some people eat that problems start. The illness is self inflicted.

"Self-inflicted ills are sucking away vital health resources from children with disability and older people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and many other illnesses that are not the results of unbridled excess."