Because of financial pressures, denial of joint-replacement surgery to patients with a body-mass index greater than 30 became a policy of UK National Health Service primary-care trusts there in November, 2005. In America obese people are finding similar attitudes among surgeons: some refuse to operate on them at all; some insist they lose weight first.
The Lancet comments: "Denying a service to a consumer may be an appropriate, if hard-nosed, business decision. But medicine is not just any business. Obese patients deserve care, just like their non-obese counterparts."
###
Contact: The Lancet press office T) +44 (0) 207 424 4949/4942 pressofffice@lancet.com
Journal
The Lancet