[nodisharmony]

If you are overweight, then NO Operation!!!

The News Of The Word story is as serious as it get's!!!


Link & Article below:-

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/stor.../news3.shtmlBy Guy Basnett

OVERWEIGHT patients will be forced to slim before being allowed routine operations on the NHS.
The News of the World has seen secret memos revealing that the bombshell policy — which rules out surgery for ONE IN FIVE adults — is to be rolled out across Britain by the end of the year.

Doctors will ration treatment to patients according to their Body Mass Index, or BMI — a formula based on height and weight.

And you don't have even have to be as chubby as the lovely Dawn French to be refused. If you have a BMI of 30 you will be denied non-emergency ops such as hip and knee surgery or procedures like IVF treatment.


DISCOVER YOUR BMI
You will be ordered onto an intensive slimming and exercise regime then reviewed in six months.



The shock move follows our revelation last week that smokers must quit to get surgery.

Nine primary care trusts have ALREADY slapped on the anti-fat rule—North Staffs, Stoke-on-Trent, Lincs, North Lincs, Milton Keynes, Herefordshire, West Herts, East and North Herts and Suffolk.

Health chiefs last night defended the move, insisting overweight patients have worse recovery rates.

Dr Brian Crompton, acting chief executive of the North Lincs trust, said public money must be spent effectively, adding: "We strongly encourage healthier lifestyles... particularly where a change can have a proven positive effect on outcomes."

Patients are not so convinced.

At 13st11lb Stoke widow Barbara Colclough, 68, doesn't look overweight. Still she was denied surgery on her right hip because her BMI is 32 and told to lose half a stone.

But with the agony of a diseased joint, working out is not easy.

Barbara said: "This is wrong. All your life you pay into the NHS, then they turn you away. It upset me terribly. I was so shocked."




IT'S DR'S ORDERS

By Dr Hilary Jones

THIS is an unprecedented move by the NHS. But it does make sense.
The heavier you are the quicker artificial joints wear out. Ops are harder in obese patients. Hospital stays and medicine requirements are greater too. If the surgeon had a way of making your operation 20 per cent safer and more effective, you'd expect him to do it.

So why, when you can lose weight and do this yourself, shouldn't you?






nodisharmony

[Dr43%er]

I think it's fair. If you are not prepared to look after your own health then why should the all ready stretched NHS pay with mine and your taxes for something that has less chance of being successfully.

[Wiglet]

Speaking as a woman who is overweight and who has had to have TWO spinal surgeries since November 2004, I have strong views on this.

I understand why rationing needs to happen but not enough is in place to help those who need to lose weight. Plus for people like myself, I've put on weight because I've not been able to exercise and I've found out since my last surgery that I have an overactive thyroid gland. This to those who do not know, means my metabolism has slowed down causing me to put more weight on.

I talked to my Nuerosurgeon earlier this year and practically begged for help. The only way I can get help is if I'm an inpatient and given extremely strong pain medication; (stronger than I am already on) while I have physio daily. This will enable me to stretch out muscles that have lost tone and enable me long term to exercise more.

My Neurosurgeon wrote to my GP and my Pain Management doctor and there are two hospitals locally where I could go. (My Neuro doc is 3 hours away from me so to stay there is to far away from my kids).

My local Health Authority is so far in the red that this request was obviously not met. I'm left at home to play on my laptop, write my blog and do what little I can before my chronic pain takes over my life. THIS IS NO JOKE. Sometimes I can't get out of bed, sometimes I just cry. It is hard when you have kids though as I try hard not to let them see that. Sadly they have. You can't hide the truth can you?

Back to this. There are mitigating circumstances and to have a blanket rule is totally and utterly wrong. My Health Authority is not named in the News of the World (Thankfully) but it won't take long for them to follow the leader. I am not an old woman but a younger woman with children and a husband that I am supposed to be taking care of. Because of my pain levels, my husband and my children quite often take care of me.

Sorry for long rant. Get very angry with this government sometimes and my own complex condition and how I can't do what I want to do!!!!!!

Just remember it is not that simple. It is not all about fat people who eat too much. I cannot eat too much as I also have IBS thanks to my spinal cord sending the wrong messages. (Let's not go there).

Each person that has a body mass of over 30 is still human and has their own story to tell and there should not be a blanket ban.

Very angry

[Dr43%er]

Ok, sorry if I came over very right wing and strong. Of course if people are to be turned down for ops then they should be given every bit of help to get the weight down and keep it down. Then they can have the op. That way you will be healthier in the future and cost the tax payer less. There will always be mitigating circumstances too. But people need to look after their own health if it will effect the op.

[bananarama]

I don't think hospitals should have such a blanket policy of discriminating. Each case should be judged on clinical grounds only.....If someone needs to lose weight in order to have a safer op then they should help the patient to achieve what is needed...Not just say sorry you are not the ideal weight so go away.....

[Dr43%er]

Bananarama, the nhs is at breaking point. They have one slot in the operating theatre and 2 patients. One does what ever to get the op, the other carries on with the life style that has caused the need for the op. You have to play God. Who gets the op?

[spitfire]

And smokers should quit before they recieve help.c'mon fairs fair.

[Dr43%er]

"And smokers should quit before they recieve help.c'mon fairs fair. " If smoking will hinder the result of the op, then yes, to right they should quit.

[Wiglet]

Dr43%er, please do not think I was directing my post at you. I was writting mine as you were writting yours yesterday and it was me venting my spleen. That said I was once in your position.

I've become disabled over the past seven years and so I was once able bodied and would critisize people who were overweight just as you and others will have. Now I am on the otherside so to speak and I can see how hard it is - It is almost impossible or at least it was until I developed IBS and now that has done me a great favour and I've lost most of the weight I put on.

It would be impossible for anyone to understand what it is like unless you have personal experience or have a chronic condition and are overweight. It is easy to judge though, we are all good at doing this. People who are in chronic pain will sometimes comfort eat. If you are stuck on a hospital waiting list you will become more demoralised and therefore you will then eat more. It is a catch 22 situation.
Then you have the other group of people who cannot eat due to pain but cannot exercise either so cannot burn off even those few calories they do eat. Everyone knows that they are not doing they knees/hips/spine or whatever any good but sometimes it is a case of surviving the day and not thinking about tomorrow.

Smoking could be easier to give up because you CAN give it up. You have to eat to survive, you do not have to smoke. Then again I'm not a smoker!

I have paid for some of my medical care in the past and that is the only way I can see the way forward in the health service. Sometimes I think we will need to pay for what we use because what we have at the momment is in deep doodoo. I agree that it is better than it was ten years ago but not much. This c**p about waiting lists of seeing a doc in three months is just c**p. Every consultant I've wanted to see so far has been longer than that so I must have been that unlucky percentage EVERYTIME!!!!!!!! (Yeah right)

The nursing staff generally are fantastically committed, can't fault most of them though.

[Dr43%er]

Didn't take it as a personal pop, but it did make me re-read my post and add to it as it did read very hard line. The first post made me think of a news story in Leicester a few years a go. A bloke in his 50's needed a heart/lung op (can't remember what one) But Glenfield Hospital (makes me think heart as it is the best heart place in the UK) refused to do the op till he quit smoking. He would not and just sat there on tv complaining that he had paid taxes all his life so he should have the op regardless of whether he smoked or not. The hospitals stance was that it would be a pointless op and he would be back there in a year with the same problems if he did not change his life style. So why waste what money and time they did have.

Sounds fair to me.

The other point is that any operation where you will be put under general anaesthetic is vastly more risky the more over weight you are. So you have less chance of waking up after.

[bananarama]

Originally posted by Dr43%er
Bananarama, the nhs is at breaking point. They have one slot in the operating theatre and 2 patients. One does what ever to get the op, the other carries on with the life style that has caused the need for the op. You have to play God. Who gets the op?

It's only at breaking point because the Government gives a blank cheque spending on criminals and trials and millions of pounds on enquiries which are inevitably shelved to gather dust afterwards. while sick people are rationed to the point of killing them prematurly....

The Government plays God alright kill the sick and save the criminal........

[spitfire]

Originally posted by bananarama

It's only at breaking point because the Government gives a blank cheque spending on criminals and trials and millions of pounds on enquiries which are inevitably shelved to gather dust afterwards.

Nowt to do with immagration then.

[Crystal-Rose]

well the soloution is that if overweight people dont eat so much as they do then they would not be over weight in the first place all they have to do is go on a diet

[Tanser_Man]

Sometimes it isn't as simple as not eating as much.

Things such as disability, age, severity of condition etc, have to be considered and not ignored. A family member of mine hardly eats anything but puts on excessive weight, i forget the name of the condition, but to simply say eat less isn't a choice for her.

[Taijitu]

Originally posted by Crystal-Rose
well the soloution is that if overweight people dont eat so much as they do then they would not be over weight in the first place all they have to do is go on a diet

Golly some people really dont have the time to read other peoples posts.

Its nice that the UK does have an NHS but it seems to be coming under alot of strain at the moment (and for a while). Many other countries, as far as I know, work around some form of personal insurance and at the end of the day capital is always limited.

Perhaps if less money were spend on armament and lost causes there would be more available to spend on issues closer to home, (After WWII Japan's economy boomed partially due to a ban imposed upon them in regards so millitary expenditure).

Hope it all turns out for the best wiglet .

[Sunny_01]

Originally posted by Crystal-Rose
well the soloution is that if overweight people dont eat so much as they do then they would not be over weight in the first place all they have to do is go on a diet

That has to be the most ill thought post I have read in a long long time. Wiglet posted 2 very well thought out messages that highlight that not evryone who is over weight over eats!

I had a terrible experience with my weight, one of the medications I took a couple of years ago caused massive shifts in my metabolism and also my hormones which caused me to gain a lot of weight. I struggled to lose that weight once the medication had ceased. I still struggle daily to maintain a healthy weight, it doesnt come easily to me and that is down to other health problems, so when someone is small minded enough to say "eat less" it angers me!

Also look at recent research that suggests people are pre-disposed to being overweight from birth.

[Wiglet]

Sunny hits the nail on the head about medication causing weight gain. Steroids cause increase in hunger for instance and if you are already battling the buldge then what hope do you have if you then have a medically induced hunger added on top!

Not only do steroids increase hunger but many other medications like anti seizure meds which are not only used for epileptics but to control nerve pain. Anti depressents also increase weight and quite often people who are drepressed are either over or underweight in the first place and so adding this issue on to them does not help!

The Governement's own medicine approval organisation NICE knows which meds cause this problem and doctors know the cheaper meds cost them less in their budgets but the vast majority also cause weight gain.

I know all about my own medications and many moons ago when I was seeing my old ill experienced pain management doctor, I refused to take one of these particular meds because I knew it was being thrust down my throat because it was cheaper! I had read up and knew it's side effects were weight gain (plus a few other nasties) yet this same doctor had said I had needed to shed a few pounds moments before??? I had found an alternative on the net which my doctor had heard of but no experience of. Thankfully he allowed me to take this med and I'm still on it now.

Money is wasted left right and centre all over the NHS. I happened to be in a hospital which was featured on the TV the day it was on the TV. We patients did not know what to do and were we going to watch it with the staff feeling we were traiters? In the end the staff watched the program with us agreeing with some aspects of the program and disagreeing with others. The next day the hospital bigwigs came around and I happend to speak to the MD and told him where I thought money was wasted in no uncertain terms but I don't think he listened. What was listened to thankfully but sadly for the overworked cleaning staff was that the ward was disgustingly dirty and no wonder people left with infections (like I did that time).
The cleaning staff worked all weekend and I got to know a couple of them quite well. The TV program focused partly on cleanliness, the cleaners drew the short straw and they were treated appallingly by the management. They were badly paid too yet what do you expect when you are paid peanuts?

The NHS needs to be pulled apart and rebuilt but it cannot blame overweight people for it's downfall when there is much more too it. I do agree that there are many overweight people that can help themselves though and many who feel that they are sucked into a cycle of eating because they have not been taught any other ways of dealing with their issues. It is easy to say "Snap out of it", but I would say once you are in a cycle, it is almost impossible to get out of it.

Long post phew....