XPost: soc.support.fat-acceptance, sac.politics, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.health   
   From: emailme@emaile.com   
      
   Reduce your gluttony and exercise you fat oinkers!   
      
   bese patients and smokers will be denied surgery under cost-   
   cutting NHS rationing plans, amid warnings from senior surgeons   
   that the move will prompt a public outcry.   
      
   NHS leaders in north Yorkshire say patients who weigh too much   
   or smoke will be told they have to go on a diet or quit smoking   
   for at least six months before they can be considered for any   
   non-urgent operations.   
      
   Similar measures proposed by a neighbouring authority last month   
   were stopped after protests from surgeons and patients groups.   
      
   But NHS Harrogate and District clinical commissioning group   
   (CCG) yesterday insisted its measures were about “encouraging”   
   patients to make changes which would help their health.   
      
   It said that this could mean that in future, less money has to   
   be spent on treating conditions linked to unhealthy lifestyles.   
      
   Ian Eardley, Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons,   
   said: “The policies for smokers and overweight patients that   
   Harrogate and Rural District CCG intend to impose ignore the   
   public outcry that surrounded similar plans announced by   
   neighbouring Vale of York CCG in September. “They fly in the   
   face of the intervention made by NHS England to prevent those   
   plans from going ahead,” he added.   
      
   Mr Eardley said blanket bans on surgery for any group of   
   patients did not comply with the NHS constitution, which   
   protects patients’ rights.   
      
   “The Royal College of Surgeons is very supportive of encouraging   
   patients to join programmes that help them lose weight or stop   
   smoking before surgery. However making it a condition of   
   receiving that surgery, no matter how sick they are or how much   
   pain they are in, is wrong,” he said.   
      
   Amanda Bloor, CCG chief officer said: “The CCG is not saying   
   patients can’t have the surgery. By introducing a six month   
   health optimisation period, we are encouraging and supporting   
   patients to undertake a lifestyle change which will provide them   
   with the best possible clinical outcome.   
      
   “The NHS spends around £9bn a year on patient care for those   
   living with diabetes and with spending on obesity related ill   
   health and smoking related illness increasing year on year,   
   these measures will help protect the future finances of the CCG   
   and the wider local health economy.”   
      
   Last month Vale of York CCG was forced to abandon plans which   
   would have seen surgery denied to smokers and obese patients for   
   up to a year, after warnings that the rationing was the “most   
   severe the modern NHS has ever seen”.   
      
   And in August plans by St Helens CCG to suspend all non-urgent   
   surgery for four months were withdrawn by health officials in   
   Merseyside following public concern.   
      
   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/06/obese-patients-and-   
   smokers-face-6-month-surgery-ban/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)