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Doctors To Breathalyse Smokers Before Allowing Them NHS Surgery (bbc.com)
Smokers in Hertfordshire, a county in southern England, are to be breathalysed to ensure they have kicked the habit before they are referred for non-urgent surgery. From a report, shared by several readers: Smokers will be breath-tested before they are considered for non-urgent surgery, two clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have decided. Patients in Hertfordshire must stop smoking at least eight weeks before surgery or it may be delayed. Obese patients have also been told they must lose weight in order to have non-urgent surgery. The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) said the plan seemed to be "against the principles of the NHS (the publicly funded national healthcare system for England)." A joint committee of the Hertfordshire Valleys and the East and North Hertfordshire CCGs, which made the decisions, said they had to "make best use of the money and resources available." Patients with a body mass index (BMI) of over 40 must lose 15% of their weight and those with a BMI of over 30 must lose 10%, or reduce it to under a 40 BMI or a 30 BMI - whichever is the greater amount. The lifestyle changes to reduce weight must take place over nine months.
I don't think this falls into slippery slope territory. Smoking and obesity aren't things that increase risks in your surgery by something small value, they increase it by large values. Acting like this is some slope that leads us to "death panels", is much like saying, "The Federal government mandates seatbelts, next thing you know they'll be installing cameras in your car and watching you every minute you're in your car." or my personal favorite, "You let your barber cut your hair, next thing you know they'll be lopping off your limbs."
It might be just me, but I think we're really reaching here thinking that this is a gateway to death panels in any country.
Now the big question is will this result in the patients improving their health before surgery or will surgery just get deferred until it's urgent?
When someone says, "Any fool can see
The baby died because its condition was untreatable, no matter what some dodgy US quack says.
When you've stopped being the place that Andrew Wakefield legged it to so he could continue spouting lies about mercury and autism and profiting off three-jab vaccines, come back to us.
We already have death panels in US healthcare.
They are called medical insurance claims processors, or adjusters.