Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSWeight loss surgery could save NHS £56m a year
The failure to comply with NICE guidelines on offering weight-loss surgery to obese patients is costing the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds every year, leading surgeons have said.
A report released today by the Royal College of Surgeons, National Obesity Forum and health firms Allergan and Covidien said thousands of patients are missing out on surgery, pushing NHS costs higher.
NHS trusts are not following guidelines set down by NICE, which say people with a body mass index over 40, or between 35 and 40 if they also have a condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, are eligible for surgery. If NICE guidance was followed, direct NHS cost savings would be around £56m a year.
The financial toll of unemployment, housing and incapacity benefit, hospital admissions and prescriptions is increasing every year but could be cut dramatically if people were given surgery, they said.
The direct cost of obesity and related illnesses to the NHS is £4.3bn a year and millions more to the wider economy in England.
Experts calculated that if 5% of eligible patients were given weight-loss surgery, the gain to the UK economy within three years would be £382m.
If 25% were granted surgery, the gain within three years would be £1.3bn.
The government could also expect savings in benefit payments of £35m to £150m as people head back to work, the study said.
Health minister Paul Burstow said: “Our ambition is to encourage healthier lifestyles and reduce the need for this type of treatment.
“As part of the Change4Life movement, we are encouraging people to make simple changes, such as eating more fruit and veg, cutting down on fatty foods and being more active.
“Our public health white paper later this year will set out plans to help people lead healthier lifestyles in more detail.”
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Readers' comments (36)
mike | 8-Sep-2010 1:59 pm
No, what is costing them £56 million a year is pandering to people who refuse to change their piss poor lifestyle choices. I mean how much does bariatric surgery cost as well? Tell them to lose the weight or they will be denied treatment. That will save even more money!
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Anonymous | 8-Sep-2010 2:57 pm
Just hang on a sec! I acknowledge that I am overweight; I also have diabetes and high blood pressure but I eat a healthy diet and try to exercise when my psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia and general chronic pain and occasional anaemia allow! I also walk with a stick.
However, I still go to work as a nurse practitioner in a very busy Walk-in Centre and indeed worked with a Hb of 8 a couple of years ago; I have been scrutinized by an external assessor in order to arrange changes to my work environment and adjustment my shift patterns so I can contiue to work. But I have never, ever claimed any benifits, housing, incapacity or otherwise.
I suspect many of my current health problems relate to a career spent working in various A&E Departments over a period of 20+ years;working long, busy shifts with chronic staff shortages, few or no meal breaks, drinks or loo visits; stressed to the max. with targets to meet and no-one listening as standards of care deteriorated.
So Mike don't tar everyone with the same brush!!!! I suspect there are a lot more indignant nurses out there in the same boat as my good self also incandesant with rage at your sweeping generalizations.
NB: I have never been offered any weight loss surgery either!
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Anonymous | 9-Sep-2010 1:36 am
>I suspect there are a lot more indignant nurses out there in the same boat as my good self also incandesant with rage at your sweeping generalizations.
Bet non of them walk to work and and endlessly moan about car parking charges and all fit into the intersecting ven diagram Pie Lovers/Salad Dodgers.
I couldn't care less about this story - more NT troll bait; genuinely sorry to hear about your ill health though.
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Anonymous | 9-Sep-2010 8:25 am
I'm new to this online service and find Mike antagonistic, rude and bombastic.
Does he do anything other than stir up controversy?
Is he real or a plant to annoy everyone?
I note his absence of comment on many serious issues - he just seems to comment when he can be incendiary.
I am bored by his childishness
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mike | 9-Sep-2010 7:13 pm
Anonymous | 9-Sep-2010 8:25 am, I will debate on any 'serious' issue you seem fit to debate on, just have a look through my previous comments to see that I debate on a variety of issues. And yes I offer my opinions on a variety of subjects too, that is the purpose of forums like this, they are OPINION forums, they are not the sterilised envioronments where all the right on sheep can pat themselves on their backs with their liberal crap.
I notice that whilst you attack mne personally, you offer no real debate of your own. So come on then, if you want to debate this topic (and I think obesity/bariatric Nursing/the costs to the NHS ARE serious issues), bring it on. Offer an intelligent argument of your own, because quite frankly I am bored of childish insults from 'anonymous' contributors with no evidence of intelligence or debate in their posts.
Anonymous | 8-Sep-2010 2:57 pm, To be honest the reasons behind your weight problems are beside the point. The point is you have got to this level through the choices you have made. And whilst I may not have served as much time as you, I have put my fair share of time in on A&E and the wards, worked the same shift patterns with all the negative health effects that come with it, yet I managed to stay fit and healthy. I am not perfect by any means, but for every Nurse (or any worker for that matter) who blames obesity/health problems on work, there are usually as many people in that same job who have made better choices.
Now, back to the main issue. Why should the NHS continue to fund poor lifestyle choices? Why? I don't think it should, it is already on its knees and resources are not infinite, so tell me why you disagree with that?
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Anonymous | 10-Sep-2010 9:14 am
We all have a degree of freedom of choice over our lifestyle. Some people choose to present themselves to their fellow human beings as a person who is in charge of their image, weight, dress, hair, etc. Others just seem to run off the rails. However , there is really only one way to get fat and that is putting too much food in your mouth .Is it a lack of pride ? Have they lost the way? Do they need help ? I have worked in nursing for aeons and weigh the same as when I started so you really cant blame work load. Any bright suggestions on ways to help fat .... we are now allowed to use the word .. people ?
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mike | 10-Sep-2010 1:47 pm
Anonymous | 10-Sep-2010 9:14 am Exactly! A bit of common sense at last!
I agree that everyone is allowed a degree of freedom of choice, noone is meant to go through life as a robot, but I do think alongside that is an equal personal responsibility to ensure that that same freedom does not impinge on personal health. That is a major problem I think, there is a complete lack of personal responsibility in many people, and it is often reinforced by the NHS who can often 'medicalise' and excuse peoples poor lifestyle choices and take the responsibility away from them; (it's not my fault its my ...). It doesn't matter what they do to themselves, the NHS will always provide a safety net, and I think that is wrong.
I think that there are 1001 reasons why people choose (and I do use that term very purposely) to make these poor lifestyle decisions and get fat, drink too much, smoke, etc etc etc. But like you say, there really is only one way to get too fat so the reasons behind it don't really matter.
We all face the same decisions and the same factors that will impinge on our healthy lifestyle; work is one of the major ones, especially with work patterns like ours. But like you and I have both said previously work patterns are nothing new and people have managed to maintain healthy lifestyles for generations with those work patterns (and yes I count myself amongst that), so it can't be used as an excuse.
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judy mewburn | 10-Sep-2010 7:18 pm
I think it is all to do with your feeling of self worth. You feel good about your self, you make sure you look good. Something happens, a bereavement a dissapointment a loss of self esteem and bingo , you either under or over eat. Both conditions are equally dangerous and body dismorphia is very common. Every body had a time when they need help, a little chat, counselling . I think we need to be more understanding and less dismissive of other peoples problems. However daft excuses do not cut the mustard ! By the way , I also have a name which is posted !
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mike | 11-Sep-2010 12:12 pm
Judy I understand that everyone goes through the crap life throws at you from time to time, noone is immune from that; and I know everyone has their ups and downs, good days and bad days, days where they will not look after themselves as well as they should, hell I am not immune myself, noone is. It is not about being dismissive of those problems in any way shape or form, in my opinion it is about not letting those same things become an excuse for long term poor lifestyle choices. We all go through bad periods in our lives, we don't all turn to drink drugs or comfort eating, do you see what I mean? Like you said, daft excuses don't cut the mustard, it is all about personal responsibility, and that I think is the message we need to start getting out there.
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judy mewburn | 12-Sep-2010 8:47 am
I agree . How does one get the message across ? You only have to look at pictures in the the nursing press to realise that many in our profession have over indulged once or twice too often. Does putting ones own house in order come first ? After all , being told to lose weight by an obese individual will hardly motivate !
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mike | 12-Sep-2010 3:50 pm
I absolutely agree that it isn't a great image that a lot of Nurses put across, and perhaps it is a matter of putting our own house in order? I am not so sure.
As for the message, the message is already getting across. There is already a raft of information, education, etc etc etc. So many of us, myself included, are blue in the face from getting the message across! People just do not listen. It is a societal change that is needed, a cultural change.
As an interesting sidenote, just look at the excellent work Jamie Oliver is doing trying to get kids to eat healthier, and look at the trouble he had! He's trying it in America now and I think they're ready to lynch him!
I honestly think that education and messages alone are not enough. I think that firstly there are a raft of measures government can take to help. Having no tax on things like fresh fruit and veg to make it cheaper for people to buy them, increasing tax on McDonalds and its ilk, making cookery classes part of every basic cirriculum again and making kids do PE for an hour EVERY day (my own school had a pathetic two hour class once a week!) Heavily subsidising council gyms and pools and making more of them, so that it is no longer cost prohibitive to join one. ETC ETC ETC, I'm sure you can think of a dozen more, the list is probably quite exhaustive. Little things like this can help.
But what is also needed is a stick with all those carrots, like I said at the start, people will never change if they do not have an incentive to do so, so remove the safety net that the NHS provides for people who refuse to change, and that will force them to take responsibility for their own health! Of course people should initially be given help and advice, but if they refuse that or relapse back into their old patterns, then why should the NHS continue to fund their poor lifestyles and excuse their decisions?
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P. Damien | 13-Sep-2010 3:33 pm
I agree with mike (unsuprisingly). And while we are on the topic it's time to stop services for alcohol and drug dependency as well as the wasted millions on sex education for children (and we wonder why we are amongst the top teenage pregnancy rates in europe!).
How many millions (or possibly billions as that little lot cost over the last decade)...and what do we see in return for it? Rates of drug misuse and alcohol misuse spiralling with teenage pregnancy rates........obviously money well spent!
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judy mewburn | 14-Sep-2010 7:49 am
Hey, I wonder if any one in the government ever reads these pages ? Lots of good ideas from the profession that has to implement the changes proposed in the white papers !
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mike | 14-Sep-2010 8:04 am
I doubt it Judy, that would be hoping for too much common sense on their part. God forbid they listen to the experts on the front line!
P.Damien have to agree with you on the alcohol and drug misuse services as well. Not so much the sex education, as I believe other factors are at play (free for all benefits system and free houses for young single mothers for a start), but definately the first two. People NEED to start taking responsibility for their lifestyles.
Heres another idea too, why can't those of us who have never smoked, never take drugs, drink very rarely (if at all), have a healthy body fat %, work out regularly and can maintain a level of cardio health, etc etc, get a massive reduction in our NI contributions? Would this not be an incentive to live or continue on a healthy lifestyle (if one needs one other than personal health)? That is assuming the people in question actually work of course.
And no response from the third anonymous' at the start of the thread then I see? Hmm.
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judy mewburn | 14-Sep-2010 8:09 am
Probably mumbling into a cream bun
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P. Damien | 14-Sep-2010 10:45 am
i agree with you mike that the benfits system is certainly to blame for teenage pregnancies.
pregnancy gives an automatic right to social housing and a whole world of wonderful benefits that the tax payer has to fork out for.
But i also agree that our attitude to sex education/health provision inthis country must take some blame.
How can it be right that a PCT can issue morning after pills to 13yr old girls but have to seek the permission of the parent to issue a paracetamol in school!
This country positively encourages sex at a young age by dishing out condoms and contraceptives like they were smarties...that in conjunction with 'benefits' as a career choice is why we have the highest teenage pregnacy rates in Europe.
PLUS....paid mat leave could also be kicked in to touch...saving many more millions.
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mike | 14-Sep-2010 3:57 pm
You do have a point there P.Damien, (and I'm not even getting started on the mat leave issue!) However I do believe that sex education in and of itself from a relatively young age is essential, the periphery services I agree aren't perfect, but still. The whole point of all of these issues though, obesity included, is the fact that there is a complete absence of any form of personal responsibility in this country, caused by an over nannying socialist state, and perpetrated by many socialising and service agents, including the NHS. It is about time that stopped.
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Anonymous | 15-Sep-2010 9:43 am
I completely agree with all that Mike says. These people that don't have any common sense and seem to only want to enjoy life by eating, drinking, participating in extreme sports, driving cars/motorbikes etc and generally living normal lives must be stopped.
Zey are ze scum of zee earth and ve must stop zem at all costs. Ve must all become boring bastards that do not drink, smoke or take any sort of risks. Ve must alzo try to breed only blonde haired children so zat ve are fit to rule ze world......
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mike | 15-Sep-2010 2:07 pm
Anonymous | 15-Sep-2010 9:43 am, your attempt at comparing me to a nazi only shows your lack of intelligence.
First of all there is a vast difference between those who do normal day to day activities (such as driving), or participate in healthy activities such as sports (which have health benefits that counteract any risk taken), and are the victims of an ACCIDENT (otherwise known as an unforseen event that cannot be controlled by individual actions), and those who CHOOSE poor lifestyles such as smoking and obesity, knowing full well the consequences of those actions.
And to say those who live a healthy lifestyle are all boring because they do not conform to the norm of bad lifestyle choices is akin to fascist ideology itself is it not?
Go away and come back when you can form a coherent and intelligent academic argument.
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Anonymous | 16-Sep-2010 9:10 am
Getting a little tetchy there Mike?
I was forgetting you were amazingly intelligent as well as pompous and bigoted. Everything must be so clear in your world, you make the wrong choice and need to be punished. It's a shame they got rid of the death penalty you would have made an excellent hangman. As a nurse you are supposed to show empathy to your patients, not contempt.
"And to say those who live a healthy lifestyle are all boring because they do not conform to the norm of bad lifestyle choices is akin to fascist ideology itself is it not? "
So you acknowledge that so called bad lifestyle choices are the norm! If we take that to a democratic level (if you believe in democracy?) then the majority, the norm should be able to decide how to live their lives and you come across as a right wing, bigoted arsehole.
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