Obese man can’t get weight loss surgery

[Jazzy]

A man weighing 35 stone (490 lbs) has been refused weight loss surgery because the NHS does not believe he is unhealthy enough.

Les Price, 45, from Brynithel in South Wales, struggles to move and needs help washing and dressing by his partner Christine each morning due to his size.

He hasn’t been able to work for the last nine years due to an accident in his last workplace and receives £300 a month in disability allowance.

But this is not enough to afford the £5,000 gastric sleeve operation privately and the NHS says he does not qualify.

Les said: ‘I’m heavy enough but not ill enough for surgery. I’ve been told I’m not unhealthy enough because I don’t have a heart condition or sky high blood pressure and because I have type two diabetes not type one diabetes.’

Les, who takes 17 pills a day for his aches and pains, believes if he was given the operation he would be able to get a job and turn his life around.

‘I know the operation isn’t the answer to everything but if I get it my life could turn round and I could get back to work and stop being a massive drain on NHS resources,’ he told Channel 5 show Fat Chance of Work.

Asked whether he has earned the right to have the surgery free on the NHS, he said: ‘I worked all my life so why can’t I have a little bit back?’

‘I don’t want to be this size, I have never wanted to be this size. It is hard because I get breathless, I get cramp, I can’t rely on everybody all the time. I try to do my best but it’s not easy. Without anyone to help me I would be stuck in bed, I would have nothing, I’d be useless.’

He admits though that he does have a ‘big appetite’ and loves eating pizza. He weighed 22 stone (308 lbs) before his accident.

Source

Should Les get the surgery free on the NHS? Why/Why not?

 

[DrLeftover]

Socialized medicine.

Comforting to know the US would never sink to that level.