NHS and Obesity Treatments
 

Amongst the barrage of TV programmes about obesity that we seem to be getting recently, there was one on last night about the NHS and treatment of morbidly obese people, i.e. those that will die of a condition as a direct consequence of their weight. The treatment, or lack of treatment, that they were focusing on was gastric banding and reduction of stomach capacity at an approximate cost of £4,000 per operation.

The people they featured were complaining that their life was in danger due to their weight, they had tried everything, no matter what they ate they kept gaining weight etc. and that the operation was essential for their continued survival and it should therefore be available to them on the NHS.

The programme featured a father who's 13 yr old son had been over eating, multiple lunches at school etc. He said:

"My son is dangerously overweight but no treatment is available to us through the NHS, so we are forced to look at getting private treatment. Why should I be out of pocket when it should be on the NHS?"

This man had watched his 13 year old son grow to 14 stone and believes that the NHS (or us the taxpayers) should be financially liable for the situation.

The programme was strongly biased towards the NHS being made to offer more treatment and backed this up by showing that all of the people featured that had the operation had successfully lost the weight. However to me this can only confirm one conclusion:-

The effect of the operation is that they are forced to eat less. They therefore all lost weight by eating less, despite their earlier protestations that diets had made no difference and that this was a last resort. It would be fair to assume, therefore, that they did have the choice to lose the weight and that the £4,000 was not really medically necessary.

Ok, now some would say they had an addiction to food that they could not control, similar to a smoker or an alcoholic, but no one expects the NHS to pay to actually stop them smoking or drinking, only to treat the conditions that occur if they fail to stop. Why should obesity be any different?

The bottom line is should we really be willing to pull money away from other treatments in the NHS or to pay higher taxes to fund these operations?

Thoughts?

Go for mouth wiring - much cheaper and stops them getting the food in their mouth in the first place. when they are down to weight, take them off

MOST obese people eat too much and exercise to little, FACT. I've rarely, if ever, heard of a largely overweight person not losing weight whilst eating correctly and doing exercise.

Even if genetically you are prone to put more weight on, doesn't mean you should still eat loads.

In other words, how many obese people are there that don't eat loads and regularly exercise???? These types are the ones that have some cause for complaint.

In a word NO !, they should be forced to spend the money on their treatment instead of bags of crisps and burgers !,

Ian..

I am a bit overweight, I know why and keep fit, I am not massive but it amazes me when I see huge people sat troffing in Pizza Hut, when you cant see your shoes, its time to stop eating !

Nothing should be spent on the fat f***ers.

A simple 'you're fat, stop eating so much and do some excercise' from a doctor is all they should get.

My girlfriend is an NHS dietician. Some of the 'things' that turn up to her clinic's are plain scary :eek:

They should try exercising some self control. Fat people really are revolting, it shows a lack of self-respect and self-control, FFS get out and run or walk or waddle if that's all you can do.
I can see us going down the route that USA have taken with the obese labelled 'disabled' and getting preferential treatment.
Really p1sses me off, epecially after seeing a family of them arrive at my local A&E after one of them had fallen off his chair. The rest of us normal people with sporting injuries etc had to wait while this sweating, stinking hunk of blubber was seen to first because they were afraid he was hyperventilating. I mean, would it be such a great loss if they'd left him out front to die?
I think not. These people have nobody to blame but themselves.

more like when you can't see your dick!!!!!

if you get to the stage where you can't see your shoes you are definately to fat :D:D:D

Tell it how it is NACRO don't beat about the bush will ya :D:D:D:D

I doubt my comments will be here for long, there is a pro-fat agenda here on porkernet.

Think some of the people in high places are XXXL possibly :D

Nacro may be trolling there but that's how I see it too.

There's no excuse for being a fat pig. It's simple greed and laziness.

There's nothing worse than being on a packed tube next to some fat **** that stinks of BO and is dripping with sweat.

I saw the programme to, and the woman who said she first wanted the operation when she was six made my blood boil.

She sat there blaming everyone for her problems and did not once take any responsibility for her size.

She then got in a car and drove to pick her daughter up from school, rather then getting a little exercise and walking!

Nick.

I'm not trolling at all, like you I regard these people demanding special treatment a sick joke. As you say try sharing a public space with these 'fat people' (hope that's PC enough)and you'll soon tire of their selfish behaviour.
Stop stuffing it in your hole and you'll get thinner, pretty simple really.

Better hope fatties are not hung like John Holmes then or they will all be down McDonalds this afternoon :rolleyes:

NACRO they are not fat they are cholesterolly challenged :D

or

beefy, big, blimp, brawny, broad, bulging, bulky, bull, burly, butterball, chunky, corpulent, cow, distended, dumpy, elephantine, fleshy, gargantuan, gross, heavy, heavyset, hefty, husky, inflated, jelly-belly, lard, large, meaty, obese, oversize, paunchy, plump, plumpish, ponderous, porcine, portly, potbellied, pudgy, roly-poly, rotund, solid, stout, stubby, swollen, thickset, tubby, weighty, whale

adipose, fatlike, fatty, greasy, oily, oleaginous, suety, unctuous

but definately not FAT :D

More here :D:D

http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=Fat

You missed out smelly, sweaty and greedy ;)

LOL @ the ads that link to the thread

Shít, hope this doesn't become common knowledge. The opposite has worked as a chat up line for years.

Women dont have a dick (revelation to some on here) so how do they gauge when they are too fat ?

Mine is still visible by the way.

It does annoy me when I see people get a disabled sticker for their cars because they have eaten themselves into such a state they cant walk, surely thats wrong, they are fat so they get to park nearer the entrance (to Pizza Hut) .

I'm sure judging by some of the photo's in muppets we'll know pretty soon. :D

maybe we could use them as source of energy. renewable, after all.

They should smoke more fags, that would keep them thin :D

Perhaps the fags could smoke the fat people?

Or maybe a flood barrier army?

LOL -

"just lie in front of my door would you - make sure you get a good seal with the floor"

:D

I prefer the term "Wideload" myself :D:D:D
astraboy.

I have never mustered the courage to go in there !

Without wanting to insult anyone, I don't see why NHS treatment should be available for this problem. Advice yes, and diet sheets are produced, but not expensive operations when it is not that difficult to lose the weight by your own efforts. There are far more important operations for the surgeons to carry out.

Les

The NHS has a duty of care to everyone, no matter what the medical problem (and life-threatning obesity is a medical issue).

Yes, it is sad that some people have got themselves into such a situation, but sadly, the NHS can't just ignore someone's medical problem ONCE there is a serious problem. Once in a life-threatning state of obesity, a diet sheet ain't going to help in some of the cases.

If you don't agree with that, then you'd obviously want no self-inflicted diseases to be treated, eg no smokers to be treated for lung cancer, no sunbathers to be treated for skin cancer, etc.

You can't discriminate as easily as this thread makes out.

im big, but ive seen HUGE. id never want an op because im overweight. I drink and enjoy nice food, so what. im fat, if it starts to damage my health ill stop eating as much but these huge people dont seem to realise that the in hole is bigger than the out hole.