Too fat for health treatment

[Megthehen]

Shocked by colleagues agreeing with this today. They have both had very significant (life saving) medical treatment and surgery on their not obese bodies which they think should be denied to me and others of higher BMI. They did say that they didn't consider me to be part of this group but I am and would be if clinical rationing continues or expands so that I and others are deemed undeserving of medical help.

In our area IVF is only available if you are "overweight" or under. I think below 30 bmi (from memory). The NHS has to cost benefit all the non immediately lifesaving treatment it gives. For example they often don't treat very elderly patients with cancer, or give transplants to elderly people and quite rightly so.

like liver transplants. pointless if someone is still drinking, so not done until they are abstinent

You don’t seriously disagree with that though? I assumed you meant something else.

As others have said, it depends what treatment you are referring to. Some treatment will be denied until the patient loses weight, because the risks are greater, the chances of success are lowered, and recovery may be longer and more complex.

Being obese places a huge strain on the body and each patient needs to be individually assessed to see what treatment is appropriate. Likewise each patient needs to take responsibility for their own health - it should be a partnership between the patient and health professionals. I say that as someone who is overweight (bmi 28), and doesn't have a perfect diet, but am working on improvements. I accept that my current bmi puts me at greater risk of certain conditions, and if I were to continue to put on weight then yes, certain treatment may not be available to me. It's not denying things to obese people, it's being realistic about what treatment would be too risky or wouldn't have a good chance of success.

@user1471462428 From a retired nurse's POV, I have damaged joints because of the lifting and handling and the years spent on my feet. As a result of this, I lost much of my mobility and put weight on. I am now being refused the surgery I need to maintain my mobility and independence on the basis that I'm overweight. I'm losing weight but apparently a stone in the last 4 weeks isn't enough for the surgeons but is too much for the diabetic team who monitor me. (And the T2 diabetes could/should have been picked up years earlier but my gestational diabetes was ignored as were at least 8 other chances for my GP to have done something about high BGs showing up.) Can't win, can I?

@PurpleDaisies you would be surprised how many people argue that alcoholics should get liver transplants...

BillHadersNewWife
Muppet in many cases, obesity is due to an eating disorder.

Like Anorexics.

Nobody tells anorerexics that they shouldn't bother trying to put on weight 'because it's an eating disorder'.

MoonlightDancer
I would rather somebody large get the help they need than the person who sits outside of a hospital puffing away on a cigarette and then puffing away on oxygen tanks every 5 seconds! I am large, classed as clinically obese due to sea combination things...poor diet, stress but mainly due to severe depression over the years!

Solipsism at its finest.

Why do you think it's poor people who smoke most?

What treatments do you mean?

There is a weight limit for heart transplants. Which is actually v difficult because if you have severe heart failure and can't move you may well be overweight. But if you are too big, the risk of the operation is too great.

I know 3 people who were told they were too fat for transplant - 2 said they would never lose the weight and just accepted it and 1 pulled out all the stops, lost the weight and got her transplant.

It does depend on the person a lot but as a bordering obese person myself, it isn't just a lack of willpower that keeps me fat but multiple factors.

I would rather somebody large get the help they need than the person who sits outside of a hospital puffing away on a cigarette and then puffing away on oxygen tanks every 5 seconds! I am large, classed as clinically obese due to sea combination things...poor diet, stress but mainly due to severe depression over the years!
And you don't think there's any smokers out there that are thinking the same? That could be smoking due to depression or the like? I don't smoke and I'm not obese,but I have an idea of how hard abstinence is, and I find it madness that you can say you're worthy of something but someone else isn't.

When you’re weight could potentially end someone’s career and impact on their health then you ought to try and lose it

Your occupational health team should be ensuring you are trained properly in moving and handling and should be doing so in a way which doesn’t damage your health. You will do yourself harm if you continually try to move any adult, obesity has nothing to do with it.

The safe lifting limits are well below the weight of an average adult. My ten year old daughter is over the weight at which they don’t manhandle patients, and she isn’t overweight at all.

Sounds like just another way to judge whilst pretending you aren’t.

Overweight people do have exactly the same right to healthcare as anyone else.

So do people who drink more than the recommended amount of alcohol. How many “healthy” people have more than 6 glasses of wine a week?

Of course losing weight is advisable if you are having surgery, but failing to do so doesn’t mean you lose the right to NHS care.

Truth is that obesity is a contributory factor to many complaints and ongoing pain , and it also complicates surgical procedures, anaesthetics and recovery. The impact on staff and resources(ie.longer hospital stays) is also overlooked. Maybe your colleagues were rather blunt but it is not a given "Right" if funding and resources could be more effectively used.

I know my mother had SVT and needed a heart ablation which mean threading the catheters up to her heart via the artery in her groin. She was second in the queue.
A right heifer was in front of her. It was difficult to thread the catheter in her veins as they were weighed down by her flab.
The team were running 2hrs late by the time they did my Mum and the poor sod at the end of the day? Not enough time to do them so they were rescheduled.
They should've given the straightforward cases priority.

MoonlightDancer

I would rather somebody large get the help they need than the person who sits outside of a hospital puffing away on a cigarette and then puffing away on oxygen tanks every 5 seconds! I am large, classed as clinically obese due to sea combination things...poor diet, stress but mainly due to severe depression over the years!

I'll never understand this attitude.

So you're obese due to poor diet, stress and depression and feel people in your shoes should get the help they need.

Smokers may smoke due to stress and depression and you feel they should be below you and other obese people when it comes to medical help?

Can I ask you why??

user1471. Does that include people on steroids, or mirtazapine?

A right heifer was in front of her.. You sound delightful. What did you know about the person in front of her? Was it someone perhaps with prader willi syndrome? Someone who had been on Steroids for a long period? Someone with PCOS? You have no clue, you judged someone really unpleasantly due to their size.

a right heifer - what an unpleasant attitude. We are pointing out the potential problems and risks of being obese on this thread, but i would hope that we can do it respectfully without resorting to nasty, judgemental terms. I have outlined that my health and lifestyle is not perfect, as have others. None of us should be judging anyone - each person is an individual with their own life story and their own reasons for being overweight/smoking/drinking too much etc.

Ill be flamed for this but it's elective to be obese a lot of the time people just eat so much honestly
Sorry to say and I just think if there's a risk because someone is massive they shouldn't have a surgery because if you die they will be blamed and it will leave a huge hole in your families life who will miss you
Also it effects surgeons and all the medics dealing with premature death down to extra risk of being obese
It's not about being undeserving though that is so cruel the way it's been discussed with your colleagues
What's the surgery

cultkid if you'd read the thread you would have learnt that it isn't always elective.

Of course losing weight is advisable if you are having surgery, but failing to do so doesn’t mean you lose the right to NHS care.

Everybody is entitled to health care but failing to lose weight might change the procedures you receive compared to another body which isn’t over weight. It would be the same for any other addiction or combination of health problems.

Gilead of course it's elective in the majority of cases. There may be a variety of reasons that make it more difficult to lose weight - depression, medications, etc, but the vast majority of people can lose weight, and it does come down to creating a calorie deficit (barring a few medical conditions such as Cushing syndrome).

It's easy to put on weight, and difficult to lose it, if your underlying health problems limit your mobility or make you depressed. Some people seem to think those who are overweight lead a life of constantly eating chocolate, cakes, takeaways etc. but this is rarely the case. You don't have to overeat by much to gain 1 lb a month, but that becomes nearly a stone over the course of the year. Ageing, and particularly the menopause, make it harder to lose weight because your body clings onto the oestrogen-producing fat cells. I know many people, me included, who have to eat very low amounts - no more than 800 calories a day - to lose weight post-meno.

@Megthehen What kind of life saving treatment? Are you talking cancer, heart attacks, strokes? No one is going to withhold that treatment.

The fact is that the success of some operations depends very much on the health of the person and this includes their weight. There is no point papering over the cracks if the underlying problems (weight) is there and likely to cause more problems.

If it bothers you so much, do something about your weight.

It is reasonable to take factors that affect outcomes of treatment into account when making medical decisions. For some forms of surgery, the risks may be much greater if the patient is very overweight, so I can understand this being taken into account. However, it is not reasonable to deny treatment on moralistic grounds ('why should our taxes go to treating someone who doesn't take care of their own health by keeping their weight down?' 'they've brought illness on themselves') etc.

Harsh, but if you really want the op, have you thought of losing weight?

Funny how the OP has thrown in a hand grenade and yet not come back @Megthehen to clarify treatments.

@cultkid @feelingverylazytoday
"Ill be flamed for this but it's elective to be obese"

Then why is poverty directly linked to obesity across Europe?

Or do you have break through research that disputes what the experts and medical professionals say?