NHS Patient Rights

FBaby

Three possibilities:
- The hospital you are at doesn't offer emergency treatment so if complications happened, you would need to be transferred. Because of the extra risks associated with obesity, many such hospital have a maximum BMI criteria.
- Your consultant believes that your symptoms acerbated by your excessive weight and that if you lost some, your symptoms might get better and you would therefore not require the surgery any longer.
- Your CCG have threshold criteria and because of the associated costs due to the risks have decided on a cut off.

In the first instance, you could look at being treated in a larger hospital. In the second instance, you could ask for a second opinion but be prepared for the same answer. In the third instance, there is nothing you can do, but maybe see whether your GP could refer you to a weight loss service.

elsien

jack_pott wrote: »

Be very careful, they're not independent, so don't say anything to them that you wouldn't say to the NHS.
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NHS complaints advocacy services are both independent and confidential. Information is not shared without the person's permission unless in very specific circumstances such as safeguarding alerts.

ripplyuk

I found the formal complaint route was a complete waste of time, to put it politely. But don't be put off OP. I feel it's important to have a complaint 'logged', even just as a statistic, rather than do nothing.

My advice is to see a different consultant privately. You'll have to pay, but if they advise that you are suitable for surgery, they can refer you back onto the NHS waiting list.

Anyone who has taken the type of meds used for bipolar will understand that they make it very difficult to lose weight, so try not to let anyone make you feel bad about it.

surveyqueenuk

Having been on olanzapine and quetiapine myself, I know full well that certain meds can make you pile on the pounds. However, the fact remains that your consultant feels the hysterectomy is too risky at your current weight. So you have two choices:

Stay as you are or attempt to do something about it. See the doc and ask for a medication review. There are several more weight-neutral psychiatric meds out there. Move more. Nobody expects you to start triathlon training, just try and incorporate more steps into your daily routine as a start. Your GP may well be able to refer you to a suitable exercise program (my mother attends a "chairobics" class, for example) and whilst exercise may well be the last thing you feel like, the effect it has on your physical and emotional wellbeing can be great.

Show you are serious about at least trying to lose some weight and you may well find that you are taken more seriously by the docs.

[Deleted User]

elsien wrote: »

NHS complaints advocacy services are both independent and confidential. Information is not shared without the person's permission unless in very specific circumstances such as safeguarding alerts.

My advocate was an ex-NHS employee, it was obvious from the way she was steering things that she had been briefed by the NHS, and it was equally obvious that my consultant had been briefed by the advocate next time I went to the hospital. Someone else told me that she had decided it was time to get a lawyer when she discovered that the consultant she was complaining about was playing golf with her advocate.

They are NOT independent.

ripplyuk wrote: »

I found the formal complaint route was a complete waste of time, to put it politely.

It's no coincidence that the Patients Assoc. have panned the complaint system as "dishonest", "not fit for purpose", and "frequently produces little result". Scotland Yard are currently investigating the Ombudsman on 30 counts of Misconduct in Public Office for failing to investigate complaints properly. There's no reason to believe that the advocates are honest when the rest of the complaint system is corrupt.

elsien

I think in your situation, I'd feel exactly the same. But I do think extrapolating from that to the whole NHS advocacy complaints system is unfair. I do work in an advocacy organisation (although I'm not in complaints) and we are certainly not in the pockets of the consultants. Or playing golf with them, never having worked in the NHS.

baby_lemonade

They frequently use the BMI chart as an excuse to refuse ops to patients. They've got too many people to see, and not enough resources, simple as that. If you are 5 stone overweight i would definitely recommend losing it, though. 5 stone is not a small amount.

[Deleted User]

elsien wrote: »

I do think extrapolating from that to the whole NHS advocacy complaints system is unfair.

This is what Parliament said when they set up the Ombudsman in 1967:

“The Bill was always drafted to be a swiz, and now it is spelt into the Bill…………Anyone who contemplates an office of this kind is faced with the dilemma of making it either a Frankenstein or a nonentity—a Frankenstein if it has effective powers and a nonentity if it has not. The Government, quite rightly, has opted for its being a nonentity, and in that sense it is a fraud……… I congratulate the Government on its being a nonentity. A Frankenstein would, I think, have undermined the power of Ministers......”

Hansard, 24th January 1967

If they have deliberately set up a fraudulent Ombudsman, do you really think they're going to provide an honest advocacy service? Why did the Government announce they are scrapping the Misconduct law 12 weeks after a case was brought against the Ombudsman?

RandyRos

Thanks for all the replies, even the ignorant ones about depression and weight loss.

I am actually 19 stone, so ideally I know I need to lose 10stone. I have always known it. I'm 42 now and have tried many times and many ways to lose weight. I don't ignore professionals who tell me to lose weight, but with depression your feelings and self loathing override your logical brain. If you can't understand that last sentence then CONGRATULATIONS you have never been depressed, I am so happy for you.

In Feb I joined a community gym and was attending once or twice a week in my latest attempt to lose weight. I'd had the ablation 5 months previously and the blood and pain had gone. Unfortunately in May the blood and pain came back even worse than before and hasn't stopped since! Yes that's right, I'm bleeding ALL the time now. So that's put paid to the gym. It has also worsened my depression. I wasn't losing any weight, but I was feeling fitter and stronger.

It's extremely frustrating that people assume overweight people sit on their bums all day. I never have done. I have kids to look after, a house to run, a big garden to maintain, animals to tend to and a large dog to walk daily.

My doc has referred me for the latest weight loss scheme which I said I'd try, but I'm not holding my breath.

Yes I understand about the anaesthetic risk, but tbh I couldn't care less if I died. Docs say it to try and shock me, but it many ways they'd be doing me a favour. I am Manic Depressive, death doesn't scare me. My meds don't cure my depression, they just stop me from trying to kill myself-most of the time. I'm happy to sign whatever they want so there's no come back on them if I died. The waiting list is 6 months long, all I ask is to be ON IT while I try again (in vain) to lose weight. Is that too much to ask?

Undervalued

It is your right to refuse any treatment you don't want but, equally it is the doctor's right (and legal duty) to refuse to provide treatment he does not consider to be in your best interests.

No disclaimer you can sign would protect the doctor from a charge of professional misconduct if he acted otherwise.

Obviously that can give an impasse and your only option then is to see if another doctor sees the situation differently. Ultimately medicine is not an exact science and is a question of balancing risks against benefits starting from the rule "first do no harm".