Posted on 06/04/2007 9:08:40 AM PDT by CAWats
Smokers are to be denied operations on the Health Service unless they give up cigarettes for at least four weeks beforehand.
Doctors will police the rule by ordering patients to take a blood test to prove they have not been smoking.
The ruling, authorised by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, comes after medical research conclusively showed smokers take longer to recover from surgery.
It is thought that 500,000 smokers a year will be affected.
However patients' groups argue that the move is about the NHS saving money rather than improving patient care.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
See the future of our country with nationalized health care.
Your typical friendly liberal welfare state medical department is demanding more control, eh?
And while your at it, might as well not allow people that over 5% overweight either.
exactly why did we resist the Nazis and commies?
Because we weren't sure who's brand of socialism we'd ultimately prefer most.
HillaryCAre in Action again....
And they wonder why people flee to Poland and America for healthcare, leaving the “Poor” to share in equally sh*tty conditions?
That's about it.....but what about requiring obese patients to lose 50lbs before surgery..... or an alcoholic to quit drinking for 4 weeks prior? How about homosexuals quitting their high risk behaviors or the drug addicts their dope before procedures? ........I hear crickets..........
Welcome to: Rationing by Political Correctness. What’s next: no angioplasty if you’ve eaten trans-fats within the past month? No kidney dialysis for bourbon drinkers? Heart transplants for vegans only?
Patricia Hewitt and Health Secretary is an oxymoron. She's loopy.
This is crazy. It may be true that it takes longer for SOME smokers to recover from surgery- but experiences with my father and my husband (both smokers) they recovered from surgery rapidly, in fact in record time- according to their doctors. I am sure some non-smokers are also slow to recover from surgery so how can this be justified?
Soon it will be no surgery for conservatives.
That’ll be next. Of course the only thing that makes HMOs any better is that they aren’t backed by the force of government ... and there’s more than one of them, so they have to compete instead of just issuing dictats.
Cool. Everyone would die of nothing.
Hillary-Care.....the consequences.
You can add me to the list. I quit just a few days before quadruple bypass, but I was out of bed the next day, out of ICU and walking the halls the second day, and sent home the third day -- to take regular walks out of my second-floor walk-up. Less than a week later, we moved into a two-story home, and I began daily walks up and down hills.
I am sure some non-smokers are also slow to recover from surgery ...
My guess is that different people just have different capacities for recovery.
Comrade! No more Twinkies or your free healthcare will be taken away!! (Michael Moore excepted)
Why don’t they just ban all tobacco products and get it over with. I’m sick of this nickel-and-dime stuff.
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