Free surgery for the obese

Monday 15th October 2007, 12:00AM BST.

MORBIDLY obese Islanders weighing 20 stone and more are being offered publicly funded surgery for the first time.

As Jersey faces up to the reality of a growing obesity epidemic, 31 Islanders have been assessed as needing the £10,000 treatment. Surgery is offered only as a final solution after other forms of treatment have either failed or been ruled out. Patients are likely to have one of two types of treatment – stomach banding or a gastric by-pass. In stomach banding, a tight silicone band is placed around the upper part of the stomach, creating a small gastric ‘pouch’ in which food is held up before slowly trickling into the main part of the stomach, rather like an egg-timer.

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