www.gdaguru.com today reports that patients cannot have routine surgery until they lose weight under new rules brought in by GPs, it has emerged. 19-01-2012
Patients in Hertfordshire are being told to lose weight and quit smoking before they will be put on the waiting list for routine operations such as hip replacements and gall bladder removal.
The move is being criticised as rationing as the NHS as a whole has to save £20bn over the next three years to cope with rising demand.
However the new Clinical Commissioning Groups in Hertfordshire, set up under the Coalition reforms, said the policy was being introduced to mitigate the risks of surgery in overweight people because they are at greater risk of complications.
Around one in four adults in Britain is overweight or obese.
A spokesman for the Royal College of Surgeons said: “It is simply wrong for the NHS to ask GPs to deny patients access to elective surgery based on lifestyle factors such as weight or whether they smoke.
"All patients should have the right to seek specialist advice from a surgeon and not have that opportunity delayed or taken away from them.
"This is just the latest example of local guidance which contradicts National Institute of Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) standards and patients should be concerned about the motivation.”
