Weight patients ‘face 30-year wait’
AT least 1,000 overweight people have been referred for weight loss surgery for health reasons – but only seven have had the operations so far this year, medical expert say.
Leading specialist Professor Donal O’Shea said that not enough is being done to address the obesity ‘time bomb’ and that funding to increase bariatric operations is urgently needed.
His fellow consultant endocrinologist Professor Francis Finucane, of Galway University Hospital (GUH), added that at current activity levels patients would be waiting 30 years for the surgery.
Professor O’Shea, who works at the St Vincent’s and Loughlinstown hospitals, said that 300 people are on the waiting list for bariatric surgery at St Vincent’s, having been approved for it following a referral.
However, so far this year just four procedures have been carried out.
At GUH, there are 100 patients on the waiting list – but so far this year only three have received the surgery.
‘We know that we ought to be doing, certainly, hundreds of operations per centre per year and at the moment we’re doing very little, Professor Finucane said.
The World Health Organisation said Ireland is on course to be the most obese country in Europe in 15 years, when it says almost all adults will be classed as overweight. As a result, it is expected the number of people with Type 2 diabetes will increase by 60%.
‘It’s not a time bomb because where we work, it has exploded, there is no ticking, we’re at the bomb site and that’s what makes it so difficult,’ Professor O’Shea said. ‘We need to be scaling up our capacity to do surgeries; that requires resources, and there is no money for new services.
‘The folly and stupidity of this is that if you do the operation, diabetes treatment costs nearly €4,000 a year less. So in two years you have got your investment back and you’re starting to save money for the health service.’
Last year, there were 27 bariatric surgeries carried out at St Vincent’s, while the figure was about 30 in Galway.
St Vincent’s said it expects to carry out 30 surgeries this year.