MERSEYSIDE’S hospitals have paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds on super-strong beds to cope with patients weighing up to 72 stone.

Five hospital trusts have spent just under £300,000 on the bariatric beds since 2009, a Freedom Of Information request revealed.

Fazakerley hospital spent nearly £40,000 in 2012, more than four times the cost just two years earlier.

When Southport hospital re-opened its mortuary, it even built wider specialist fridges reinforced to accommodate patients weighing 50 stone, as well as strengthening the slab.

Bariatric beds have a reinforced frame and a larger sleeping platform and enough space must be left around them so hoists to be used.

Hospitals said they had to buy or hire the extra- strong beds as the region’s obesity crisis worsened.

A Fazakerley hospital spokesman said: “Last year we were awarded a contract to carry out elective weight-loss surgery for NHS patients from Merseyside, Cumbria and Lancashire.

“To ensure these patients receive the care they need, we have invested in additional bariatric beds.

“Additionally, because of the increasing number of bariatric patients we are seeing for elective surgery and emergency medical treatment, we have adapted the design of new wards to minimise mobility issues for these patients.”

Yesterday Merseyside’s obesity tsar unveiled plans to tackle the region’s obesity epidemic.

Crosby-born Professor David Kerrigan, 53, is behind two “supercentres” at Fazakerley and Chester which will perform nearly 1,000 surgeries a year.

He said: “The scale of the obesity challenge we face in this country and in Merseyside is staggering.

“Even though these centres are the biggest in the country, we will only be able to treat one in 300 obese patients who would be eligible for surgery.

“If your television is broken, you do not necessarily want to understand why it is broken, you just want to get it fixed.”

Campaigners also warned that the scale of the obesity epidemic will get worse.