Dutch hospital beds and operating tables could buckle under the strain of obese patients, doctors have complained, adding some patients barely fit into scanning machines. The Dutch are one of the tallest people in the world and obesity rates in the country are rising.

“Recently I had to shove two operating tables together in order to operate on one heavy patient,” surgeon Herman Mencke told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper on Wednesday.

New operating tables can support a patient of up to 360 kgs (790 lbs), but older tables show strain if weight exceeds 150 kgs (330 lbs), the newspaper reported.

A group of doctors first raised their concerns in Dutch medical journal Medisch Contact, noting care workers faced particular difficulties in lifting and manoeuvring heavy patients.

The Dutch obesity association has responded to the complaints, by urging hospitals to invest in more appropriate equipment, rather than arouse misplaced feelings of guilt in obese people.