More Shropshire patients seek weight-loss surgery
Saturday 26th November 2011, 5:00PM GMT.
More people than ever before in Shropshire are seeking surgery to deal with their weight problems, it has been revealed.
It comes as figures show that roughly a quarter of people in the country are classed as obese. Nationally, 24.2 per cent of the population is overweight.
But the figure is slightly higher in the county, where 72,708 adults aged over 16 – 24.9 per cent of the population – are obese. In Telford & Wrekin the figure is 36,300 people – 26.5 per cent of the adult population.
Although only a proportion of the obese will need hospital treatment, Shropshire health bosses have been warned that weight management for patients is ‘becoming a bigger challenge with more patients requesting or needing bariatric (weight loss) surgery.’
The problem is being treated as a clinical priority.
A spokeswoman for the Shropshire County Primary Care Trust, which commissions NHS services, said work was taking place to improve services for obese patients, but the emphasis was to stop weight problems before they start by promoting healthy eating and exercise.
“This work is on-going,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Telford and Wrekin PCT, said surgery was justifiable in some extreme cases.
“The PCT recognises that there are strong health gains to be made from the management of obesity, which includes the range of weight management measures from self-care right through to surgery,” she added.
“As a PCT we are seeing a growing demand for surgery. As we have a limited budget we have to consider any requests alongside other spending priorities.
“For this reason we have only been able to offer bariatric surgery to a limited number of patients each year. We recognise that surgery can have its own risks and is not necessarily the option for all patients.
“For this reason we ask all patients to work with our NHS weight management programme.
“The PCT has recently been considering other criteria to make the process of selection for surgery as fair as possible to all applicants.”
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No doub people will come on here and claim they are “big boned” which is factual rubbish or that they have inherited their fat genes!
Unless you are infirm or disabled and unable to exercise, there is no excuse for being fat. I use the word fat because that is what the problem is, people eating too much fat. To call it obsese is a PC way not to offend fat people.
These people should go on a diet and exercise, not use lame excuses and thus expect, after years of filling their faces, the NHS to fit gastric bands or undergo liposuction.
It boils down to ignorance and laziness, and as you are aware, I have no sympathy for people who cannot control their greed.
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try not to eat to much
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The selection process for this type of procedure is ridiculous. I was never given a valid reason as to why I was refused funding from the PCT, it was simply because there was no funding around. Likely story. Rather than encouraging the Bariatric Surgery, more needs to be done for those obese and who can’t afford the likes of Weight Watchers meetings. Free local groups to be set up can make a world of good and to meet those in a similar situation can encourage group activity.
Get off your high horses, the power has gone to the PCT’s head.
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I think the whole obesity problem has an underlying problem; Britons are growing increasingly unhappy with life – with sprawling and uninspiring urban areas, having to drive miles to get to the countryside where people can exercise, depression, high crime, gangs roaming the streets, overcrowding but no sense of community, uninpsiring weather and most of all, unpopular policies to make our lives even more unhappy has a factor. Food, tobacco and alchohol have become our opium to ease the pain – and even that is being ‘regulated’ with no effort to improve quality of life in the UK.
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I think this is outrageous and selfish!!!!
I think if you are willing to eat and get massive in the first place then you should take a long hard look at your self in the mirroe and say i did this to my self and i need to work hard in making it go away like ( EXERSIZE) it’s going to be hard but to be fair i am a skiny person and if i even stated to put on some weight where i had to keep buying bigger clothes each week then i would stop to think. i need to do something not keep it going forever and then complain that i am fat and need the public to pay for me to have it all taken away from my body at a hospital.
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I think it’s disgusting that overweight people are getting this sort of treatment on the NHS when people with illnesses such as cancer etc can’t always get the life saving treatment they require.
Also the cost of gyms, weight watchers etc is not excuse. It is free to walk, jog, run in the parks / pavements.
As bob said, it’s pretty simple really : eat less and move more!
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This is a primarily a mental health problem. But it is not the persons fault anymore than any other mental problem is a persons fault. If it was so simple for everyone eat less exercise more do you not think there would be far less obesity. If you do not suffer from this thank God. If you do seek medical help.
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