Trust to deny surgery for six months to obese patients and smokers
OBESE PEOPLE and smokers in the East Riding of Yorkshire are to be denied non-life threatening surgery for six months.
About 1,000 operations a year, including for hip and knee replacements, will be delayed for patients with a BMI of 35 or over and smokers. They will be offered weight loss and stop smoking programmes.
The measures, coming in on October 16, have been introduced by East Riding Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which insists it is not about saving money, saying the move is to “encourage and empower patients to take greater responsibility for their lifestyle choices”.
The CCG’s director and lead nurse Paula South admitted the change would see “less activity” in four hospitals, Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital, Goole Hospital, and Scarborough Hospital, where patients from Bridlington are sent.
But she said: “This is not about money. This is not about cutting waiting lists. There will be a pause in the amount of surgery going through the hospitals. In terms of saving money in a whole year it won’t make any difference.”
The measures, however, have been condemned by the Royal College of Surgeons as the “wrong approach and frankly shocking”.
The college president Clare Marx said that decisions about whether to treat a patient should
be based on need and “not arbitrary criteria”.
Hull CCG, which also sends patients to Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, currently has no plans to introduce the restrictions.
Hull Council leader Steve Brady said he would not support any proposals, saying he was concerned about the creeping advance of rationing: “It’s a move many people would consider discriminatory. Where does it stop? That’s my concern.
“Every human is born with a different metabolism and I think it is a dangerous road to take.”
The East Riding CCG – which this year approved a £6.8m deficit budget, requiring more than £15m savings and efficiencies – is spending £200,000 on a weight management programme run by East Riding Council.
People taking part will get a free leisure centre pass and free parking while taking part in a programme.
They can, however, if they choose, pay to go to Weight Watchers or Slimming World, or not take any formal support at all.
The CCG said patients who did not reach their target weight or stopped smoking after six months, would still be put forward for surgery. Those meeting targets will be referred earlier.
There is also a long list of exclusions including anyone needing urgent surgery, diagnostic referrals for cancer and patients with severe mental health illness.
Also excluded are vasectomies, the “frail elderly” and children under 18.
Ms South said she accepted the Royal College of Surgeons’ opinion, but said: “The programme is very much focussed on improving health.
“There’s a good body of evidence that would say the fitter you are for surgery the less risk there is around that and the fact your recovery is much quicker.”
Restrictions for routine surgery have also been imposed in other parts of North and South Yorkshire and the West Riding as part of measures designed to save cash. In April it emerged that one in five patients in North Yorkshire had surgery delayed because they smoke or are judged obese.