Being tough on obese people can sometimes produce results

We have all heard of doctors who refuse to operate on men and women because they smoke. They feel that if a person cannot look after his own health than why should they bother trying to help them when they could be operating on someone who actually cares about their health. This obviously causes a lively debate that rages in hospital boardrooms as funds and facilities are allocated to different causes.

In recent years however it is not only smokers who are at peril from doctors refusing to help them as it now appears that the growing numbers of obese people all over the globe have much to fear from these doctors. For example the Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Adelaide, Australia recently announced that they would not undertake certain surgeries on anyone who had a BMI of 30 plus or who smoked.

In fact even though it sounds pretty draconian the hospital board only said that they would not do liposuction or body reshaping surgery on obese people unless they lost weight on their own merits also. Being tough on obese people can sometimes produce results and in the long run may actually do them a lot of good. Nevertheless the hospital is coming under criticism from people who say that this policy is tantamount to discrimination and is the thin part of the wedge that will mean that soon anyone who does anything even slightly unhealthy will be excluded from hospital operations.

Some people however felt that the obese people were taking up hospital beds and using the funds of national hospitals which could be far better utilised helping people who made an effort to look after their health. The issue is an extremely sensitive one as many people who have weight problems argue that they are the way they are because of no fault of their own and that they have therefore just as much right to proper health care as other people who do not suffer from their “disabilities”.

Interestingly a small poll done to test the reaction of this decision by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital showed that almost ¾ of the people supported it.