Professor Helen Henehan

Someone has to stay on them for life.

And one in about four, one in five people, they don't have any effect on.

So those people will need a surgical intervention.

So while there are multiple treatments that the severity of obesity Alan had, bariatric surgery would have been the better treatment for Alan.

Yes, and the multidisciplinary team, both assessment and follow up afterwards is really what's key to the success of bariatric surgery.

So, you know, all our patients here, you know, part of our high quality service is a full multidisciplinary assessment to ensure a few things.

Some people should never have bariatric surgery, just it wouldn't be the safe thing for them.

and that we identify that well in advance or early in the assessment.

And then some people will be ready but need some preparation either with dietitian or psychology or both and medical preparation to optimize them for safe surgery.

So a lot of preparation that would sometimes take up to nine months here and on occasion it can be done faster in two to three months.

But it's really important.

That's a kind of a joint preparation process between the patient and the multidisciplinary team.

Then aftercare is really important as well.

And that's completely missing when people have traveled abroad for surgery, unless they instigated themselves with the GP or a service at home.

So looking for, you know, and Alan may not have had as difficult course if his problem had been identified earlier.

Often when people have problems like a leak or bleeding, there are, if you look back, very early signs of it in the first toot.

even 24, 48 hours after surgery.

And if you intervene early, a lot of the long terms are the sequelae.

It can be fixed easier and people won't have as challenging a recovery.

So in hospital care is really important to pick up problems early.