No new hips or knees for fat patients

The Times reports on England's health care system:

FAT people will no longer be given hip and knee replacements on the NHS in East Suffolk. GPs and consultants have agreed not to refer anyone classed as obese to a specialist until they have lost weight to help to save the area’s primary care trusts £47.9 million.

A team of GPs and senior consultants from Ipswich Hospital spent nine months investigating ways to address the trusts’ financial problems and drew up a list of criteria that must be met before treatment for conditions such as varicose veins and glue ear.

The team agreed that patients with a body mass index of 30 or more — recognised by the World Health Or- ganisation as obese — should not be referred to surgeons for hip and knee replacements.

Free health care.