Ban on surgery for patients who are overweight or who smoke?

x posts dapnedill

I assume the Health Trust concerned will decide on a case by case basis.

Obese in this case is a BMI of 30+, which apparently is 35% of adults. Yikes. That is a lot of people affected.

Daphne, great post, I think people have to know despair to understand why some eat too much yet others cannot eat, I am in the latter group. I am no different to those who overeat yet I don't have to take the criticism , the jokes, the judgement so many obese people hive to take.

The NHS recognises that obesity isn't all about having no will-power...

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/statistics-and-causes-of-the-obesity-epidemic-in-the-UK.aspx

Me too Annie, but sometimes get comments about my small appetite (not from people who really know me) implying that it's an affectation...

Not on a case by case basis, as you would have realised if you had read the link.

'Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.'

It's just to save money that NHSE is not giving them.
It would not be necessary if the £350 million a week was put into the NHS. It's making people with a BMI of over 30 stay in pain for another year.

By the way, 65% of trusts are in arrears, so it will not be long before others follow suit, according to the RCS.

Ana, I get compliments , I want to slap them and say - no I am not lucky to be so thin ,

I am overweight because I eat too much. I would expect to be told to lose weight if it would not be effective to operate, both economically and medically, unless I did.
Imagine how depressing it is for a surgeon to know that what you are doing is useless.

If there were no alternatives given to me, I would have a choice.

And if you were struggling with depression Jane you may not be in a position to think clearly, also if you had depression you may choose death to life

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/03/vale-of-york-nhs-obesity-smokers-deny-elective-surgery

Plans have been put on hold.

It seems there's been a partial U-turn...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-37265752

Crossed posts, daphne.

Before it comes down to deciding who among us deserves to be more expendable, don't Doctors have a sworn duty to 'first do no harm'? Not sure about how healthcare policies are crafted in the UK, but it would appear to me that deliberately delaying/denying surgery to someone in need for financial reasons, crosses some serious ethical boundaries. Healthcare providers are bound to uphold the Hippocratic oath, no matter where they practice medicine, so I've been told.
Here in the US, insurance companies have tried to pull the same draconian argument unsuccessfully. What they have been encouraged to do instead is to provide incentives (in the way of lower premiums, deductibles or co-payments) to customers who pledge to enroll in weight loss programs, quit smoking or voluntarily go into rehab.

It isn't a case of people 'deserving' healthcare. Doctors aren't judging patients. However, some operations are riskier and less successful if patients are obese.

In the UK, all medical treatment is assessed by an organisation called NICE and health benefits/value for money are calculated in QALYs (Quality adjusted life years). I've been looking up some of the research about obesity and hip/knee surgery and it would appear that the risks of the operation itself are greater and patients are less likely to benefit from replacement if they're obese.

I strongly believe that people should be encouraged to lose weight, but not by being shamed. There are health benefits from being a normal weight, but breaking the vicious circle of denial and lack of motivation is a challenge. Just telling or threatening somebody about weight isn't going to work.

I know it is very difficult to lose weight, boy don't I know! I have to work hard at it. But coming from a medical family I also hear the frustration when someone presents themselves at the Surgery, when the Doctor knows practically almost all that he can do for a patient is being done in vain, because they are appallingly overweight.

It is galling to know that when you write a prescription that it is going to be wasted. The real cause is probably psychological and there is not enough money or counselling to truly help.
If there is a need for blame, should we be looking to ourselves or always searching for external sources to excuse our own self destructive behaviour?

Blaming someone else nowadays seems to be a very popular option. My Father was abusive so.... I am fat because of......

AnnieBach, well in a way depressed obese people are choosing death over life.

What on earth can be a strategy to help them ? I wish someone could come up with something. The governments latest ruling on processed food didn't help.

Nothing helped George Best did it. He was such an amazing footballer. I felt really sad about they way his life ended. Not that he was fat.

So why don't you lose weight, janeayressister, before it becomes a problem? If it's difficult for you, imagine how much worse it is for somebody whose life seems hopeless.

When somebody is seriously depressed, they don't make choices. Their lives seem totally out of control. Unfortunately, very few GPs seem to understand depression. There is much which could be done.

Maybe faecal transplants are the answer! Just google it. Tim Spectors book -the Diet Myth is worth a read.

Why the need for the decision to be made to the press, this was so wrong, all they have done is place the obese open to even more criticism and judgement

Why not leave it between doctor and patient

Having tried to lose weight for most of my life, you think I would be happy to have lost 1/2 stone, but no, I'm worried why i have lost it so quickly, just a couple of weeks, without trying. Never happy.

I expect it has been said, but does no harm to reiterate the fact that obesity largely falls in the poorer demographic. If this goes ahead the poor will have a double whammy.
1. Delay in a painful, life limiting condition.
2. Inability to pay for treatment which the more wealthy obese will have as an option.

This is what a two tier system will look like

Spyder08 How about charging for missed appointments? There are about 100 a month just at my local GP. They put a notice in the waiting room. Dentists already do it, but the funds probably don't get fed back into the system.

I'm so right, you lot are just sinking lower and lower, I'm just waiting for someone to start on the GAY community, they must be unworthy of NHS treatment, and another thought, Ex-offends maybe a reduced form of care.

Iam, there has always been the obese, the alcholic, the uneducated, the mentally ill, and those who judge them