The NHS plans to impose its own sugar tax in hospitals to help tackle the “national sugar high” increasingly ruining people’s health, the service’s boss reveals.

Simon Stevens also urged ministers to take radical action against obesity, including forcing food firms to strip sugar out of their products, as part of an unprecedented assault on bad diet.

Hospitals across England will start charging more for high-sugar drinks and snacks sold in their cafes and vending machines in an effort to discourage staff, patients and visitors from buying them, the NHS England chief executive said.

In an interview to mark the Guardian’s major new series on the NHS, Stevens pledged to introduce a sugar tax in hundreds of acute, mental health and community services hospitals by 2020 and every local health centre.

The move will make the NHS the first public body in the UK to bring in a sugar tax, and it will use the expected proceeds of £20m-£40m a year to improve the health of its own 1.3 million workers.

(The Guardian)