New agreement means wait less for weight loss

Monday 11 December 2017

Pressure on Jersey’s health service to provide costly surgery that can assist with obesity, diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea could be relieved, thanks to a new deal with the NHS, Express has learned.

At present, getting gastric bypass surgery can take more than 18 months in some circumstances. It costs the Health department between £5,000 and £12,000 per patient.

In response to recent questioning by St Saviour Deputy Jeremy Maçon, the Health Minister described the pressures on the Health service with regards to the surgery.

A recent count revealed that nearly 150 islanders were awaiting assessment and onward referral – 21 of whom were in the urgent category, with 14 awaiting confirmation of a surgical date.

Pictured: gastric bypass surgery can help with obesity.

Despite the number of people waiting, just 68 patients underwent surgery over the past five years. 22 of those took place in 2017.

The Health Minister said that the Department were looking for ways to address these demands, but had so far struggled because, “NHS providers have been unable to offer any spare capacity due to their own demands.”

While they were trying to negotiate a deal with a private supplier, Express has now learned that they’ve been able to improve their current arrangement.

A Health spokesperson commented: “We are pleased to have been able to agree an enhanced deal with our existing supplier, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. This has enabled additional operations to be carried out in the latter stages of 2017, and also more operations in 2018.”

With the cost per patient tending to vary, it is hard to estimate at this point how many more operations will be possible. 

The cost of an operations can vary between £5,000 and £12,000 depending on the patient, and the number of operations that can be performed depends on the mix of patients from different points on this scale. A budget for 2018 has not yet been finalised.