Smokers and fat patients thrown off NHS waiting lists (UK)

"Smokers and overweight patients in need of major operations could be thrown off hospital waiting lists under "desperate" cost-cutting plans. Patients' groups described the tactics as an "appalling scam" to enable NHS bosses to claim waiting times are far shorter than they are, simply by denying a place in the queue to many of those referred for surgery. Under the plans drawn up by NHS bureaucrats in Kent, any smoker referred for "non-urgent" operations – such as hip replacements or cataract surgery – will not be allowed to join the queue until they have either given up smoking, or completed a 12-week course to help them ditch the habit. Those who are seriously overweight will also be denied a range of operations until they have completed a three-month NHS diet programme. Although every patient has a legal right to be treated in 18 weeks of being referred for treatment by their GP, the protocols agreed mean different rules could be applied for anyone with a body mass index of more than 30, or those who smoke. Patients groups said delays getting a place on 12-week "smoking cessation" and "weight loss" programmes could leave many patients waiting even longer than 30 weeks implied by proposals drawn up by NHS West Kent Primary Care Trust" - Telegraph