Posted on 10/18/2017 6:37:13 AM PDT by NRx
The NHS will ban patients from surgery indefinitely unless they lose weight or quit smoking, under controversial plans drawn up in Hertfordshire.
The restrictions - thought to be the most extreme yet to be introduced by health services - immediately came under attack from the Royal College of Surgeons.
Its vice president called for an “urgent rethink” of policies which he said were “discriminatory” and went against the fundamental principles of the NHS.
In recent years, a number of areas have introduced delays for such patients - with some told operations will be put back for months, during which time they are expected to try to lose weight or stop smoking.
But the new rules, drawn up by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Hertfordshire, say that obese patients “will not get non-urgent surgery until they reduce their weight” at all, unless the circumstances are exceptional.
The criteria also mean smokers will only be referred for operations if they have stopped smoking for at least eight weeks, with such patients breathalysed before referral.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Seems like there might be some sort of panel involved in reviewing these cases.
Obey or die—think of it as liberalism in action.
Take a pill
Not good!
Shows a 20th-century (NOT 21st century) understanding of obesity/overweight, plus government tyranny on steroids!!!!
PHOOEY!!!!
I work in an operating room....it’s happening here too. Get ready.
Agree but that’s a decision for a surgeon and the patient. Not the government.
I’m sure this decision was thoroughly considered by NHS’s Orwellian-named National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Can just hear the caterwauling in the US when that nanny-state edict is announced: “THAT’S RACIST!!!”
Here they wanted it to be smoker, obese, republican?
No care for you!
(but u still get to pay for everyone else)
Socialized medicine requires rationing. They will find any number of excuses to say “no” that are required to meet their spending targets.
There is no other way to meet demand, short of a completely free market.
You either limit costs by stopping investment in new technology and making health workers govt employees, or you limit demand through extended waiting times or the use of arbitrary criteria to exclude services to people who otherwise require them.
It’s the only way socialized medicine “works”.
“THAT’S RACIST!!!”
Here there will be an opt out clause for individuals with historical group weight conditions.
Some Cardiothoracic Surgeons believe that the 1 year mortality rate, post Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, is so effected by smoking that in one year the mortality is the same than if they didn't have surgery at all.
Persistent Smokers seem to die at same rate
whether they had surgery or not.
If this is true, why induce the severe suffering of
surgery at all, if it's not going to make any difference?
Just Say’n
Who did you vote for?
Bet you they still operate on drug users and murderers.
Socialized medicine is great if you're 20 and break your arm. If you're an obese 65-year old smoker, not so much.
Yes,the fact that it's the NHS almost certainly means that socialist bean counters were involved.But in a truly "free" hospital a committee of physicians and surgeons could decide that given numerous reports in professional journals and the experience of their hospital certain kinds of procedures would be postponed until a patient lost weight or stopped smoking.
And as for "surgeon and the patient" that's not always true.A few months ago I was scheduled for a hip replacement at a major Boston hospital.I had a wound on that same leg from a biopsy that wasn't fully healed.The day before the surgery was scheduled the surgeon,despite my dermatologist's advice that all was well,said "no way will it happen tomorrow...you're at too big a risk for infection".It was another month before the wound was healed enough for the surgery to be done.
I had no say in the matter.
It’s already happening here. My friend’s surgery was put off for three months with Kaiser in California until she lost weight and didn’t smoke for three months.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.