Doctors ‘cashing in on weight loss ops’

Professor claims surgeons are playing down the risks

ONE of Scotland’s top obesity experts has accused surgeons of ‘profiteering’ from weight loss operations by playing down the complications.

Professor Mike Lean, Chair of Human Nutrition at the University of Glasgow and founder of an NHS diet programme, said patients should be offered support to diet instead.

Almost two-thirds of adults in Scotland are overweight and over a quarter are obese.

Around 250 weight loss operations take place under the NHS each year. But that figure is set to double. Hundreds of patients also pay around £10,000 for private bariatric surgery, which can involve a gastric band or an operation to reduce the size of the stomach, meaning patients feel full after eating small portions of food.

Surgery can improve problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and joint problems. But up to a quarter of patients need a further operation due to complications, including failure to lose weight.

Professor Lean said: ‘Surgeons are quite happy to do these operations, and they make armfuls of money doing so, but patients come back with all manner of complications. Yet this is played down. They are quite clearly profiteering. With the right weight loss programme you can transform patients – you don’t need surgery to do that.’

He added: ‘Although weight loss operations do improve patients’ health in the short term, it is not the most cost effective and safe way. The argument that bariatric surgery essentially “pays for itself” within a few years does not stand up to scrutiny.’

Professor Lean founded an NHS weight loss programme, Counterweight, which puts patients on a strict liquid diet before food is gradually reintroduced. He said this regime, which includes lifestyle and behaviour support, helps to shed an average of two stone.

But his comments, which are published in the medical journal Clinical Obesity, have sparked criticism.

Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said Professor Lean was ‘pushing against official advice and potentially causing confusion’.

Simon Gibson, a consultant bariatric surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow and the private Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, said: ‘There’s very good evidence for bariatric surgery that shows it’s very safe and effective and has better results for reversing diabetes than diet alone.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are committed to ensuring that, where clinically appropriate, people have access to this life changing treatment.’