This week we have posted a number of news stories on The Online Clinic blog which may have raised a few eyebrows: fast food outlets being opening in the same NHS hospitals that are dealing with the obesity epidemic and the fact that a patient’s access to a weight loss operation may well depend more on his or her postcode than the level of need.
A story reported in the Daily Mail newspaper may, however, be the most surprising yet. It says that GPs are telling obese patients to eat more to increase their body mass index so that they become entitled to weight loss surgery. Any patient who has a BMI of 40 or over (that is around double what it should be) has the right to surgical assessment if their doctor feels that all other methods of treatment, diet and drugs, have failed.
The Royal College of Surgeons have said, however, that some primary health care trusts will only refer a patient for surgery if their BMI is over 50 and that some patients are being told to eat more in order to be referred: the it will get worse before it gets better scenario. The spokesman for the Royal College, Mr Simon Toh, said that surgery is a cheaper option than long-term care for obese patients, which at the moment costs the NHS £7.2 billion a year.
To be honest, we do not believe this story in the Daily Mail but if you have personal experience of such advice from a GP, please feel free to add a comment to this article.