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Weight surgery patients 'face postcode lottery'
Thousands of patients who want weight-loss surgery are facing a postcode lottery on the NHS, data out today suggests.
Some people who should meet the criteria for surgery are forced by their local hospitals to wait until they become even more obese.
Around one million people in the UK are thought meet the criteria for bariatric surgery, with around a quarter of these wishing to have it.
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) say people are eligible if they have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more, or a BMI between 35 and 40 with other significant disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
All other weight-loss methods - including traditional diets - must have failed for at least six months before surgery is considered.
An investigation today by GP newspaper found more than half of NHS primary care organisations do not follow this guidance.
Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found 65 of 118 primary care organisations questioned rationed patient access to surgery, often by raising BMI thresholds to 50 or 60.
Some said they could not afford surgery for all those who wanted it.
NHS Stockton-on-Tees carried out the most procedures per population, with 5.9 operations per 10,000 people.
Meanwhile, NHS Rotherham funded just one operation among its 244,000 population, the investigation found.
Data has suggested weight-loss surgery is cost-effective in the long term, with costs generally recouped within three years.
This is because the extra costs of caring for obese people as they get older, including from related conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cancer, can be much higher.
Today's report comes after calculations last week showed there has been a 785% rise in weight-loss surgery over five years on the NHS.
Data gathered by the NHS Information Centre revealed a rapid rise in the number of operations carried out for the most obese people in England.
In 2003/04 there were 480 procedures, rising to 4,246 in 2008/09.
Dr Richard Vautrey, from the British Medical Association's GP committee, told GP newspaper the postcode lottery on who gets treatment is likely to get worse.
He said GP consortia, which are being established to handle the NHS budget, could be vulnerable to legal challenges by patients who meet Nice criteria but are still denied surgery.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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