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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.
A friend of mine was talking to a surgeon (a friend of his) about the risks of some surgery, and the doctor quoted his own success rates, so maybe he said "8% had a bad outcome" (I forget the number but it was in that range) but then he added, "but please realize every single one of those patients had serious complications such as being morbidly obese, usually with diabetes", etc. In those cases the risk of not doing the surgery was certain death, so the patient and doctor had little choice but to take the risk. However, I can see why a surgeon would want to avoid "non-urgent" surgery on a patient if they could significantly reduce the risk by losing some weight first.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
How long before we see this catch-22 in the Daily Mail:
Guy with bad knees can't walk. Gains weight. Needs knee replacement surgery. Ordered to loose weight before surgery can be approved. Told to get out and walk more to loose weight. "I can't walk!" Sorry, sucks to be you. BTW, I see you have a liver donor card...
This is typical of the bullshit doctors have to put up with these days - patients saying "I want X fixed and I don't want to take any personal responsibility for it".
You've torn some ligaments in your knee - thats terrible, it must hurt and you must be restricted in your movement.
Being obese means you put more weight on that knee - its going to take considerably longer to heal because you are going to struggle to exercise the knee while its healing, because you are fat and can't put your weight on it.
Being fat also raises the issue of cholesterol and similar issues, impacting your recovery.
Smoking has a similar effect - cholesterol, blood oxygenation issues etc etc.
For both of those things, your recovery is massively impacted. The doctor can't just "fix your damn knee", your body is going to do that - and you aren't helping it one little bit.
But don't worry, if you bitch long and hard enough about how you don't want to change your lifestyle, I'm sure the doctor will pull out a miracle drug, pop you a pill and you can carry on your day as if you were never asked to take personal responsibility for your healthcare.