AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - New robust ambulances are being introduced to hoist heavy patients in the northern part of the Netherlands, Dutch news agency ANP-Reuters reported.

For patients weighing more than 100 kg (220 lb), the city of Assen will deploy ambulances with lifts to ease the burden on staff, emergency services director Tjerk Hiddes told ANP.
""When they contact call centres we will also ask for their weight,"" Hiddes was quoted as saying. The new ambulances will weigh 5,000 kg rather than the standard 3,500 kg.
The Dutch are one of the tallest people in the world and obesity rates in the country are rising. Last year doctors complained some hospital beds and operating tables could buckle under the strain of heavy patients.