Obese Patients Not Accepted For The Life-Saving Operation
AFP, 21st January 2010
Surgeons claim that some patients qualifying for weight-loss surgery have been denied access to it.
RCS (the Royal College of Surgeons) said that obese patients have to wait for the operation. It means they become even more obese which might cause further complications. The raison for this situation is shortage of funds.
Doctors said that only 2% of eligible patients undergo weight-loss surgery. They called this situation “inconsistent and unethical”.
According to the UK’s NHS, patients with a BMI of 40 or more are eligible for the procedure. This might be different in other parts of the world. There are countries where only patients with BMI of 50 or 60 have access to the weight-loss surgery.
Professor Mike Larvin from RCS said:
“In many regions the threshold criteria are being raised to save money in the short term, meaning patients are being denied life-saving and cost effective treatments and effectively encouraged to eat more in order to gain a more risky operation further down the line.”
