Surgery Denied to Smokers & Obese - Kick The Habit First!

Oh my word, that's ridculous. In a western country, they're telling you how you can spend your money on health?

 

I can understand elective surgeries in a national health care system being selective no different than an organ donor list ... prioritize based on prognosis, potential and patient.

" ... if the owner ... didn't deem it worth maintaining?"

How subjective will that list get? Ever had unprotected sex? Ever drink alcohol? Ever jay-walked?

.... that's a dangerous benchmark IMO ....

 

Anyway, to put the debate and original new item back into perspective - they aren't going to deny anyone healthcare - that would obviously be a very wrong thing to do. The plan is just to delay certain types of treatment to give the patient a chance to clean up their act and at the same time improve the chance and rate of recovery.

That puts the facts nice and bold in their faces IMO and I'm sure it will work out well for both parties.

Edit: Rob, that's a good point - it's hard to measure these things but chain smoking and binge drinking to the point of liver failure, or overeatin to the point of skeletal complications are clear cut cases IMO.

 

I think delaying is just as bad as no care.

 

It wouldn't be a discussion if you didn't say why you think that

What's so bad about delaying a non-life threatening op and allow both the patient and the nation at large to enjoy the benefit of kicking the habit?

 

That's not necessarily true ...

A person could be suffering from an 80% arterial blockage and need surgery. If they're a heavy smoker, the surgery itself will likely be the death of them as they're more likely to stroke out during surgery. They could live several more years in that condition. However, quitting smoking would exponentially increase their survival chances of surgery, aid in faster recovery, and obviously prolong life.

 

No one said anything about non-life threating lol

 

Reading the linked article might help

 

Actually, they did ... However, that was partly my point: some things sound life-threatening, but they're not. Further, even though they can be life-prolonging procedures, the risk factors for smokers in many surgical situations are more dangerous than going without the surgery. Again though, if the person quits smoking and then has the surgery, the overall positive impact is much greater.

The examples in the article were not as drastic as mine to be fair. When they're talking about obesity patients, they're referring to hip and other joint type operations; excess weight during recovery for this type of operation is a definite and obvious hinderance.

FYI - I'm a smoker

 

They should stop giving healthcare to the sick and wait for them to get better before they perform any procedures -- that would definitely improve the prognosis and allow people to recover more quickly.

 

Good one McFox!