NHS ‘should make gastric band surgery more available’

The NHS needs to offer gastric band surgery more readily to Brits in order to stem the tide of people going abroad for surgery that could be inferior to that they receive back home.

This is the opinion of TV presenter Anne Diamond, who feels so strongly on the subject that she has established a new group ? Experts in Severe and Complex Obesity (ESCO) ? reports the Telegraph.

She told the National Obesity Forum this week that those who have exhausted all other options should be able to access surgery on the NHS.

The news provider quotes Professor Alberic Fiennes, head of a specialist obesity unit at University College of London Hospital, as saying that doing this could also help diabetes sufferers.

“Each type II diabetes patient costs the NHS £2,500 per year, bariatric surgeries cost £8,000 and 60 to 80 per cent of patients with diabetes go into remission. This will start saving the NHS money within three years,” he added.

This news comes after a report commissioned by Ash Wales and the British Heart Foundation Cymru found that the NHS in Wales spent £386 million between 2007 and 2008 on treating smoking-related conditions.