Gastric Banding Abroad – BBC News Report “Flawed and Biased”
Following a BBC 10-o’clock news item on Thursday 9th October on the dangers of having Gastric Banding in Belgium, Cosmetic Bliss, who, of course, co-operate exclusively with Dr Michal Cierny PhD in Brno, Czech Republic for all bariatric surgery felt the need to respond.
Cosmetic Bliss hold no brief for Belgian Weight Loss Surgeons, and strongly support IFSO guidelines on appropriate BMI levels being used as a factor in risk assessment of patient suitability for surgery. All surgery performed under general anaesthesia carries a risk however, and the laparoscopic techniques used in Gastric Banding and Sleeve Gastrectomies, although proven to have several advantages over open surgery, are not risk-free. Nevertheless, under the care of an experienced specialist surgeon such as Dr Cierny, and with the support of a good surgical team the risks of surgery for a patient are much smaller than the risks involved in remaining obese. It is the duty of the surgeon and his team to make an assessment of a patient’s
suitability for surgery on the basis of this risk assessment.
Here is the text of Cosmetic Bliss’ response to the BBC item:
“Following the report on BBC News concerning Gastric Banding in Belgium, we wish to make the following points.
1. No RESPONSIBLE bariatric surgeon, abroad or in the Uk would offer surgery on a patient that did not meet the IFSO guidelines on BMI (same as NICE guidelines), and those surgeons who do perform surgery on patients who fail to meet the guidelines do so for one reason only – MONEY!!
2. The fact that a patient is refused surgery under the NHS does not necessarily mean that they are not suitable candidates for bariatric surgery. The chief reason surgery is denied by the NHS is because of cost. The figures speak for themselves. In 2006 almost 750,000 UK residents met the NICE (& IFSO) guidelines for surgery – only 7,000 operations were performed. The health service simply cannot afford to offer surgery to more than a fraction of those “qualified” to have it. More often than not local health authorities set much higher limits on BMI before considering a patient for NHS Surgery. That is why most patients seek a solution in the private sector, and why such companies as ours exist.
3. We agree that support post-operatively is essential to successful management of obesity, but that too is not always available to patients who have had surgery under the NHS, and I do not agree with the secretary of BOSS – Alberic Fiennes’ assertion that post-band patients should need to have access to “immediate” adjustment to the band. If the adjustments are performed by either an experienced bariatric surgeon OR qualified bariatric nurse, they should be safe and effective, and not require “emergency” correction. We have safely and responsibly arranged and accompanied more than 100 patients for successful surgery in the last 12 months alone, and do think it is entirely unfair to promote the idea that responsible surgery can only be assured in the UK, that “Johnny Foreigner” is more likely to breach guidelines for profit than a UK surgeon, and that competent aftercare is only available in the UK from the NHS. Many surgeons who perform Gastric banding for NHS patients, where the NHS “bar” is set MUCH higher than the NICE/IFSO guidelines also perform the same operations on private patients with lower BMI.Expertise and a commitment to care is not confined to the UK or the NHS, and there is a whiff of Xenophobia in this report which maybe has more to do with retaining a profitable private business for UK surgeons than a real concern over patient safety. It was very noticeable that although the straw poll conducted by BBC News cited UK Bariatric surgeons who had treated patients who had gone abroad for surgery, the question of how many patients were treated following surgery – either through the NHS or privately in the UK was never asked. We feel that the BBC has departed from standards of fair and balanced reporting in this instance, and find this very regrettable.”
October 29th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
hi there
whilst i would agree with most of your statements i would also like to point out that the undercover interview with the gastric band surgeon in belgium was totally out of order in that they led the the Poor surgeon in to making “off the cuff” remarks.
the surgeon in question had absolutely nothing to do with the case in question whatsoever, yet they made him look like a criminal.
I think that the BBC was totally miss handled and was not in the Best interest of Fair reporting.