Obesity patients in Ireland are travelling abroad for surgery because they face waiting times of up to five years for treatment, an Oireachtas committee was told.
Due to the lack of funding in the past, waiting lists for obesity treatment have built up significantly.
The HSE national clinical lead for obesity, Donal O’Shea, said plans to develop six obesity clinics have been stalled due to budget constraints and recruitment freezes.
The committee heard that there is a backlog of several hundred people awaiting treatment. “That leaves a model of care that isn’t functioning or flowing, that’s a model that is not working.”
As a result, patients are seeking treatment in other countries like Turkey, despite the risks involved.
Mr O’Shea said “At the moment we are treating all of the diseases obesity causes, but we are not treating obesity. If you treat obesity, you prevent those diseases. With the funding that was allocated last year, we got rid of our surgical waiting lists in Loughlinstown. Our waiting list for medical management remains long because of the backlog.”
Sinn Féin TD Sean Crowe said: .“People are going to Turkey, and we’ve heard the horror stories of these stomach bands and so on. People have actually died on these trips. The common agreement was that people are travelling because they couldn’t access services. They’re waiting for years.”
