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.

Comments

Re:Single Payer Health Care is Great !

[Beerdood]

Oh, it would be *SOOO* much better to have a system like the US where only the wealthy can afford healthcare, even if they happen to be obese smokers that'll die a few years after getting the surgery anyway.

Man, what is with these horrible death panels in these socialist countries with single payer plans? When there's a limited amount of surgeries that can be performed on patients, they have the audacity to ensure the patients they choose are more likely to live longer, therefore making each surgery more worth the investment (as opposed to randomly selecting patients, first come first serve, or not letting poor people get surgery). What kind of sick system is this!??!?