CALL FOR CHILD OBESITY SURGERY TO BE PUBLICLY FUNDED
(New Zealand Press Association Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Auckland, April 16 NZPA - Operations to deal with child obesity should be taxpayer-funded, a Wellington paediatric surgeon says.
Dr Brendon Bowkett said publicly-funded operations for obese children could help reduce several related health problems in later life, the Sunday Star-Times reported.
He said publicly-funded surgery for some children was being put back in favour of surgery for obese children wh ich was not publicly-funded.
He believed obesity surgery for children -- which could cost up to $20,000 -- should be funded by Government.
Obese children -- who formed 10 percent of the New Zealand population -- often had adult conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and gall bladder infections.
Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital recently treated a 12 year old weighing 182kg.
Dr Bowkett said diet did not always work on extremely obese children who needed to lose 50-100kg.
However, a Wellington gastroenterologist, Richard Stubbs said obesity surgery for children was not appropriate as they may not have the motivation to stick to the strict diet the surgery needed in order to be successful.
Guidelines for obesity-related operations are being put together for the Australasian Society of Paediatric Surgeons with the assistance of Phillip Morreau of Starship Hospital.
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