Obesity A Huge Strain On The Nhs - 1543 Words

Obesity in the UK is proving to be a huge strain on the NHS, as individuals tend to have multiple comorbidities associated with being overweight. Bariatric surgery has been found to be an effective way of managing the financial strain by reducing the incidence of comorbidities in individuals’ post-surgical weight loss. Factors such as Human Rights Law, the NHS constitution and the Bioethical principals for good practice point to the benefits for all morbidly obese patients to be provided with bariatric surgery, however there are further opinions to suggest this is only treating the symptom and not the cause. In the UK 26% of men and 24% of women are classed as obese with 2% of men and 4% of women classed as morbidly obese. Obesity is†¦show more content†¦6 However, despite this less than 1% of patients in the UK who could benefit from bariatric surgery end up getting treatment with numbers of bariatric surgery falling 31% from 8794 operations between 2011-2012 to 6032 operations in 2014-2015. 7 There is a requirement for patients to show their commitment to losing weight, and the approval process can be long and drawn out depending on each local trusts policy. Some experts have stated that the high BMI cut off may have caused some patients to gain weight in order to be eligible and that despite the cost savings, the NHS may have the wrong priority when patients with cancer are being refused certain treatments due to cost whilst obese patients have made themselves ill through choice.8 This opinion has been challenged by both ethics campaigners and legal rights activists. Under the Human Rights Act, there are â€Å"protected† characteristics such as age, disability and race that offer legal protection against discrimination etc. There has been a campaign lately to include obesity as a protected characteristic for freedom from discrimination. 9 The European Court of Justice made a decision in FOA, acting on behalf of Karsten Kaltoft v