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.
I had no say in the matter.
Well, you don't want to get a nosocomial infection. I had one of those after my back surgery, and it nearly took me out. It's bad enough when you aren't trying to recover from being sliced, diced, wired, and stapled back together.