Number of bariatric surgeries in BC need to double, says VP of Canadian Association of Bariatric Surgeons

RICHMOND (NEWS 1130) — It’s a procedure meant to give people suffering from obesity a new lease on life, but so far the province has not agreed to fund more bariatric surgeries.

Only 400 bariatric surgeries are covered in British Columbia every year, and the wait is now more than three years, says Dr. Sharadh Sampath who is medical director of the Richmond Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Program and vice president of the Canadian Association for Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons.

Last year, he made a public plea for the Ministry of Health to increase the number of procedures, but he says so far the province hasn’t made any funding decisions.

Alberta covers 600 bariatric surgies per year, while Ontario and Quebec, Sampath says, perform five times the number of surgeries per capita than BC does.

“Very few other medical conditions have a cap on treatment. We would never cap treatment of diabetes, we would never cap the number of knee replacements, and yet we cap surgeries for obesity,” he says.

Types of bariatric surgeries vary. Richmond’s bariatric centre offers up laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomies, which reduces the stomach size, and more complicated procedures which reroute the intestinal tract.

Sampath argues the number of surgeries every year should be doubled. He estimates 3,000 people are on the wait list, and patients can wait three and a half years before getting surgery.

“My average patient has tried every weight loss technique, every diet, every exercise program under the sun,” he says. “The reality is obesity is a chronic medical disease.”

He points out diabetes will disappear up to 80 per cent of the time after surgery and there isn’t a medication that can accomplish diabetes remission even five per cent of the time.

Considering the procedure only costs the system $13,000, he says it makes economic sense.

“If you look at renal failure from diabetes and high blood pressure that comes with obesity — dialysis in one year is $60,000, heart surgery on someone is almost $20,000,” he says.

The waits for surgery have desperate people traveling to other countries like Mexico or Southeast Asia for treatment, but he stresses they don’t have the benefit of a follow-up.

“They have inevitably a higher rate of complication and we’re called on to try and save them from these problems. Sometimes they are quite life-threatening complications,” he explains, adding it is a tremendous burden to the health care system.

Only two hospitals in B.C. offer bariatric surgery: Richmond General and Victoria General. Sampath says if more surgeries are approved in the province, he’d like to see a third hospital in the Interior perform them, to increase access for people who live outside the Lower Mainland.

Somewhere between 17 and 20 per cent of British Columbians are obese.