NHS sees obesity spending soar
NHS spending on obesity has soared more than sevenfold in three years, figures show.
High demand for stomach surgery for obese patients as well as the cost of specialist equipment – such as larger examination couches – means the costs to primary care trusts (PCTs) have shot up.
The new data comes after official figures revealed that weight-loss stomach surgery for obesity has risen 40 per cent in a year.
The data, from the NHS information centre, showed there were 2,724 hospital admissions in 2007/08 for bariatric surgery, which includes stomach stapling and gastric bypass.
Overall, hospital admissions for obesity also increased, reaching 5,018 in 2007/08, a 30 per cent rise on 2006/07 and almost a seven-fold increase on 1996/97.
The statistics showed 48 per cent were now treating more patients for obesity than three years ago.
Around one in six PCTs had increased their obesity budget seven-fold in the last three years and the same number had purchased primary care equipment specially designed for obese patients.
Dr David Haslam, a GP in Hertfordshire and clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said PCTs were turning down requests for surgery not because patients were failing to meet criteria laid down by the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), but to cut costs.
He said: “PCTs are delighted to find any excuse to turn down bariatric surgery, despite the fact that it is among the most clinically effective, and cost effective procedures in any field of medicine.”
Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation and member of the National Obesity Forum, said: “Obesity is now so great that this level of PCT spending is necessary just to make inroads into the problem.
“But this kind of spending cannot be sustained and could go on to cripple the NHS.”
Source: Yahoo News
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It has to be remembered that this obesity surgery is currently the only proven treatment for long term weight loss in the morbidly obese. Also, it is proven that gastric banding, gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy result in near-immediate health improvement, often curing type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnoea and hypertension (high blood pressure). All of these diseases cost the NHS a fortune to manage and treat with expensive drugs, with patients being frequently admitted to hospital as emergencies for expensive acute treatment. Bariatric surgery has been shown to ‘pay for itself’ in 2 years – this must not be forgotten. It’s the cost of treating obesity that will ‘cripple’ the NHS in the longer term, not the cost of surgery.