NHS hospitals that refuse surgery to smokers and obese patients are ‘draconian and discriminatory’, doctors warned last night.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges criticised the policies, which were introduced in some clinical commissioning groups last October.
Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said people in need of medical help will be left in pain as they are forced to wait for treatment.
NHS hospitals that refuse surgery to smokers and obese patients are ‘draconian and discriminatory’, doctors warned last night
‘Such policies are draconian and discriminatory, singling out specific groups of patients’, he told the Daily Telegraph.
‘It is cruel to keep patients who are in severe pain or, as in some cases, immobile and unable to work, waiting unnecessarily for treatment.’
The scheme was rolled out in October at the East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, a health trust in East Yorkshire serving 313,400 patients.
Managers are trying to save £11.5 million this year and claim patients will get more benefit from operations if they are in better health.
The Royal College of Surgeons has previously described these schemes as ‘wrong’ and ‘shocking’, as all patients should have a right to treatment.
Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said people in need of medical help will be left in pain as they are forced to wait for treatment (file photo)
Other health trusts have considered imposing similar policies in recent months but it is not clear how many of these are in place.
According to documents uncovered by Health Service Journal, the scheme will be introduced in the Vale of York CCG from October.
Anyone needing surgery who has a Body Mass Index of 35 – which is very obese – or who smokes will be referred onto the programme for six months.
Obese patients will be sent to weight loss and exercise classes while smokers will be offered smoking cessation counselling and nicotine patches.
Obese patients will be sent to weight loss and exercise classes while smokers will be offered smoking cessation counselling and nicotine patches
If after six months they have failed to lose any weight or stop smoking, they will be put forward for the operation regardless.
Managers say it is important patients are ‘encouraged’ to lead healthier lifestyles, ‘irrespective’ of whether or not they succeed.
Approximately one in four adults are obese and another one in five smoke.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘Decisions about whether a patient has an operation or not should be clinical, made between doctor and patient.
‘Blanket restrictions on treatments are unacceptable and we expect NHS England to intervene if there is evidence of rationing care and the CCG is breaching its statutory responsibility to provide services that meet the needs of the local population.’