Obese patients 'encouraged to put on weight to qualify for surgery'
This is sick. Why the heck is the NHS spending money on this anyway? I know the arguments that it is not their fault (they are victims) and that obesity causes lots of healthy problems (e.g. cancer) but surely there is no need to operate?
2 comments:
It is sick and does happen, unfortunately. I used to consult for a bariatric program in Houston, before the nutritionists railroaded me out. But the lead guy was a surgeon and was only interested in performing lap-band/bypass surgeries. No consideration for other measures first. Some would come in with health so detrimental they wouldn't survive surgery. The docs would send them home or put them on Atkins until their parameters were better, then perform surgery. They'd lose weight on Atkins and I'm thinking, why don't you just keep going with that. Sad, but true.
As long as the money is not spent directly by the consumer we'll have insanities like this story.
Such reform wouldn't cure obesity of course, but the spectacle of gov't docs telling someone to get fatter to qualify for surgery is just one of the many splendored fruits of a "single payer" system.
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