Figures released to the Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act show that fire services were called out almost every day of the last five years to assist in lifting obese patients. In 1826 days there were 1784 call outs, and more than three quarters of the incidents involved NHS patients.
On one occasion the fire fighters were called to help move a patient from one hospital bed to another.
Fire trucks were also needed to help lift patients from their homes, from baths in which they had become stuck, and from upstairs parts of their houses.
In total the call outs cost fire authorities across the country £4 million over five years.
Mike Penning, the shadow health minister, said: "As a former firefighter, I am concerned at these figures. They show the severe strain that the growing obesity epidemic is putting our emergency services under.
"Labour's complacent attitude to tackling obesity has meant that years have been wasted in our bid to deal with this growing problem. We urgently need action now, but unfortunately this Government's record has been one of obesity targets missed and scrapped, budgets for information campaigns being raided, and dithering over food labelling.
"It is about time that the Labour Government woke up and started to take obesity seriously."