Obese patient takes NHS to court over gastric bypass refusal
Former police officer Tom Condliff is to become the first patient in Britain to take his primary care trust to court for denying him surgery which could help him to lose weight and overcome 13 illnesses.
62 year old Condliff has become obese as a result of the drugs he has taken to treat his diabetes, but has been told by his local NHS trust that he is not overweight enough to have the surgery.
To make things worse, if Condliff lived less than a mile away in Stoke-on-Trent, he could have the treatment as he would belong to a different primary care trust.
Though the gastric bypass surgery would cost the NHS £9,000, Condliff has been told by consultants that the benefits would be so far reaching that he would no longer need his wheelchair, medication and hospital appointments which come at a combined cost of £20,000 per annum. However, if he does not get the surgery and then needs kidney dialysis, the cost of his health care will double.
Condliff is now taking North Staffordshire PCT to court under the Human Rights Act, on the grounds that the surgery will stop him needing expensive drugs, saving the NHS money in the long run.
If Condliff wins his court battle, surgery will have to be carried out using keyhole techniques at the University of North Staffordshire, as he is now too ill to undergo the conventional operation.
If you are overweight and are concerned about how it is affecting your physical and emotional well-being then a less drastic option than gastric bypass surgery is gastric band hypnotherapy.
Gastric band hypnotherapy involves the use of hypnotherapy, neuro linguistic programming (NLP) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques to convince individuals that they have had a gastric band fitted in an operation, but without the risks and costs that come with invasive surgery. If you would like further information about this process, view our fact sheet on gastric band hypnotherapy, or visit our homepage and use the search tool to locate a qualified hypnotherapist in your local area.