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Push for taxpayers to fund lap band surgery

NEWS.com.au, Australia

Fiona Hudson

EXCLUSIVE: OBESE Victorians should get better access to taxpayer-funded weight-loss surgery, says a state advisory panel.

A major increase in public funding for gastric banding operations was needed to help ease the obesity crisis, the expert panel found.

Bariatric Surgery Working Group chairman Prof Michael Grigg said a funding boost would save lives and trim the state's future health bills.

Weight-loss surgery deserved higher priority, the panel found, though this could shift scarce resources from other elective surgery.

Only people aged 18-65 and with a body mass index of 35 or more would be eligible for free surgery, the panel proposed.

Patients would have to diet and exercise before and after surgery, and would be subject to other strict criteria.

Gastric banding - or lap band surgery - involves squeezing the stomach with an inflatable band.

About 400 morbidly obese Victorians are on public hospital waiting lists for the operation. Last year about 2800 had the operation - almost all in the private system.

Prof Grigg, director of surgery for Eastern Health, said some overweight patients were mortgaging their homes or dipping into their superannuation to pay for private surgery.

"The evidence is overwhelming that this is a very effective treatment," he said.

"It's not a cosmetic operation, it saves lives.

"These people are past the point of no return. Nothing will help them other than this operation . . . and there should be better public funding for it."

Prof Grigg said equipment deficiencies would need to be fixed before the surgery could be more widely rolled out in the public system.

"The public hospital system is already overworked. But obesity itself is creating an extra load on the system," he said.

Patients can lose up to half their weight after lap band surgery. It also reduces the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other weight-related problems, lowering the chance of hospital stays.

The Bariatric Surgery Working Group made its recommendations to the Department of Human Services late last year. The 16-member panel included surgeons, researchers, a health economist and a diet expert.

DHS spokesman Bram Alexander confirmed the department was working on a set of bariatric surgery guidelines but said it was too early to comment further.

A spokesman for Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the Government was yet to get a formal proposal.

"We haven't seen anything yet so we can't comment on it," spokesman Jason Frenkel said. "We're expecting to see something in coming months."

The Australian Medical Association last year called on the State Government to publicly fund 3000 obesity-related operations.

At the time, the Government said it wanted to treat the causes of obesity, not the symptoms.

The State Government has provided more than $150 million on "Go For Your Life" initiatives to promote the healthy living message.

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