Obese patients and smokers banned from routine surgery in ‘most severe ever’ rationing in the NHS

H/t reader squodgy:

“After milking tax from smokers and allowing advertising for smoking and openly encouraging obesity by allowing uncontrolled proliferation of all Fast Foods, the UK Government now shows how crass hypocrisy is the new excuse to cut services to help dismantle the once beautiful National Health Service and enable more funding for the large American Medical Corporations.

If in doubt, just visit a Hospital and check out the names on the services/products.
The NHS has been sold down the river by Thatcher,Bliar, Camoron and their ilk.”


Obese patients and smokers banned from routine surgery  in ‘most severe ever’ rationing in the NHS:

Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale.

Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.

The decision, described by the Royal College of Surgeons as the “most severe the modern NHS has ever seen”, led to warnings that other trusts will soon be forced to follow suit and rationing will become the norm if the current funding crisis continues.

Leaving patients waiting in pain for treatment longer than is clinically necessary cannot be accepted
Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons

Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, which represents acute care, ambulance and community services, said: “I think we are going to see more and more decisions like this.

“It’s the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books, and in a way you have to applaud their honesty. You can see why they’re doing this – the service is bursting at the seams.”

The announcement is the latest in a series of setbacks for patients who are facing rolling strikes by junior doctors that threaten to cripple the health service as winter approaches.

The decision by Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) comes amid increasing limits across the NHS on surgery for cataracts as well as hip and knee operations.

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