HEALTH bosses in Stockport have denied claims in a documentary that they ban smokers from having operations.
The ITV1 Tonight programme, to be screened this evening, will name Stockport Primary Care Trust as one of 16 that have discriminating policies against the obese or smokers who need surgery.
It is alleged that out of the 16 NHS trusts, Stockport is the only one that limits operations solely on the basis of smoking habits.
But Dr Stephen Watkins, head of public policy at Stockport PCT, said: "These claims are simply not true. We do not restrict procedures for smokers.
"Like other PCTs, if we feel someone would have a better outcome from a procedure if they stopped smoking prior to the treatment they will be offered advice and support to stop smoking, which may lead to a procedure being delayed."
A spokeswoman for the Tonight programme said: "It would appear that there is a possibility that an employee we spoke to at the PCT has got mixed up and thought that a policy urging patients to stop smoking, which is voluntary, was compulsory."
The poll examines whether barring patients from surgery because they smoke or are overweight is medically justified or a cost-cutting exercise.
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If people who have health problems from smoking or weight should be told that they will not receive more help unless the stop smoking or loose weight? i myself was told that i had a smoking related lung desease four years ago i totally gave up smoking and so did my wife.if its caused by weight or smoking what is the point of helping somebody who cannot be bothered to help the hospital/doctors sorry but its hard facts of life... stop smoking and you will reduce smoking related health problems.Stop eating to much food and fats and you reduce the health problems related to being over weight. these things are all ""FACTS""And are to help you and me life a healthier life ""FACT""
Oh dear - sounds like the researchers need sacking. They have basically made a programme on the basis of mis-information. Will it still be screened? Will they tell the viewers that the programme contains fundemental errors?
I suspect there is some truth in it. Why stop at smokers and pork pie eaters? Why not refuse to treat boozers, or people who have a sports injury, children with congential disorders on the basis that their parents knew it was a possibility, or anybody suffering from anything.
The bottom line is the surgery is the patient's descision alone after weighing the risks and benifits.
A doctor refusing surgery to a patient for any non life threatening reason in this case amounts to blackmail or coercion.
This guy should face at minimum a hearing to discuss his mental stability and a right to hold a medical license.
If he is so determined to force smokers to quit, I would have to question if it would be safe for a smoker to be treated by this hateful individual, not knowing if he has any limits as to how far he will go to express his viewpoint.
He already travels into the realm of torturing a patient, How far will he go?
More important how far will public support for the hatred promoted here be willing to go?
People need to be made aware of the market value of personal rights similar to a home or a car the worth is weighted by supply and demand. In a civil case where rights have been abused, it is generally believed those rights have a value which is incalculable. In a country which doesn't recognize they exist outside of government, you could only dream about how much better life would be if you had them.
Most refuse to acknowledge the rise of fascism is a reality in our world. Not just a nasty name to call an adversary but a legitimate and growing political reality. It is sureal the evidence is seen most prominently right in the same UN agencies which were formed to defeat it.
In Columbia university a clown who promotes islamophobia to attack the validity of anti-semitic laws, was actually being applauded after his speech, you have to know society and the security of your rights are in big trouble. We will all support a person's right to an opinion as is their right, however when they support a political cult which threatens to take even the right to your own opinion our mood should be tempered.
The human rights commission is the opposing force to combat rights abuses. How many of us even know of a mechanism to report a rights abuse? When you do send a report to them more often than not it is ignored. It is no secret this is an agency failing in it's mandate, as with the bulk of UN agencies; so tied down in their own bureaucracy and corruption due to lack of regulatory agency or enforcement mechanism they have become less than useless. Paired with the fact most often the participants are political failures and appointees throw into the pot representatives of some of the most repressive countries on the planet and afford diplomatic immunity and the results should be predictable.
Due to apathy on behalf of the so called free countries and the type of people we send to represent our interests in these posts. The more repressive states are in the highest rates of attendance and participation. The UN now represents the same poison they were supposed to cure.
Your rights are your most precious possession regardless of your net worth, nothing you could possibly own could compare to that worth. When you consider how many died to preserve them how much do we cheapen our own assets when we cheapen the value of those belonging to others.
Fascism seeks to take those rights in order to use them to control you. The Protections we hear about, in governments "protecting" public health, what we actually see is a statement governments are intending to make decisions for you, and take from you an asset only you can surrender, otherwise we are seeing a criminal act which needs to be punished.
Irregardless if you are a smoker or not, your assets are being stolen and cheapened with a dropping market share paralleled in supply and demand, and the current fad aimed at health and genetic perfection, is the tool being used to depreciate them.
What is the point of giving somebody a heart bypass surgery if within a couple of years that person could be back wanting yet more surgery. All because they wont change their eating habits.or smoking habits?????
Kevin: but what happens if I am happy about a slide to fascism?
Let's face it, the Torbour and Labory parties have failed so perhaps we should consider fascism as a real alternative? The sad thing is that the far right in this country would be far more popular and attract mass appeal if they were allowed to advertise and publicise their views without fear of prosecution.
I hope their day will come and so do millions of others who are quietly waiting for the opportunity to freely say what they think about what has happened to this once great country.