Lawyer slams ‘pernicious’ NHS weight policy for op
ALAWYER has travelled to Lithuania for a hip operation after he claims he was told to lose weight before he could be referred to a consultant in Wales.
Henry Hills was 21st when he first consulted medics for help about his hip.
But Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s policy meant he was unable to see a consultant until next summer and surgery was not likely to take place until 2019.
His GP told him she was unable to refer him to a surgeon due to the area’s NHS BMI (Body Mass Index) policy that stated BMIs must be less than 35 before a referral could be made.
Mr Hills, 61, had a BMI of 40 and would, therefore, have to undertake a 32-week lifestyle management programme to bring his BMI down.
He branded the programme “nothing short of life-style rationing.”
Mr Hills, who now weighs 18 and a half stone with a BMI of less than 35, has instead flown to Lithuania for a hip operation on Tuesday.
Treatment at the Nordorthopaedic Clinic will cost him £6,000 compared to £11,000 or £12,000 if he was to have private surgery in the UK.
Mr Hills, from Wrexham, said he decided to take such action because of the pain he is in.
“From my perspective, this is totally unacceptable and constitutes undue delay” he said.
He said the problem began in January last year when he began experiencing mobility difficulties and by July was in severe pain.
X-rays revealed moderately severe osteoarthritis in his left hip.
NICE guidelines state patients should be referred for joint surgery before there was a prolonged and established functional limitation and severe pain.
It states that patients’ specific factors including age, gender, smoking and obesity should not be barriers to being referred for joint surgery.
Mr Hills, who works as a solicitor advocate, said: “My condition is disabling and debilitating and will inevitably impact on my ability to undertake my professional work, which I want to continue for at least eight years. I consider the health board’s whole approach to orthopaedic patients a disgrace.”
Mr Hills said he has written to the health board’s chief executive and Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething to express his “dismay and concern” over his treatment.
He said: “We in Wales are receiving a very poor, second-class service, at the hands of a health board which has been in special measures for several years.
“I will be invoking the EU cross border health care directive for reimbursement of costs of surgery in Lithuania on the basis that if I were to wait for the surgery to be undertaken within NHS Wales then this would cause undue delay.”
A spokesman for the Welsh Government said they do not comment on individual cases.