06.08.12
‘Spend money on obesity not palliative care’
A Scottish surgeon has suggested that NHS funding could be better spent on surgery for obese patients, rather than on palliative care for the terminally ill.
De Beaux, a gastric and weight-loss surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, questioned the funding of expensive treatment that could offer “little benefit” for patients in their final weeks of life.
Over a quarter of Scottish adults are obese, according to the Scottish Health Survey, published last autumn.
“If someone is in pain and needing palliative care I would not be against that,” de Beaux said.
“But I do have reservations about the fact that in oesophageal and gastric cancer we spend £20,000 to £30,000 on palliative care per patient and that gives them around six to eight weeks of life.
“Is that money well spent when you have so many other conditions? Health care is rationing. It’s trying to get a balancing act between some very expensive treatments which have very little benefit but because they have emotive benefit we spend money on them.
“There’s a perception that an overweight person is just eating too much and needs to pull themselves together, but some people have a disease which makes it impossible for them to lose weight.”
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