Senior doctors are coming out against the Ministry of Health management, claiming that its new policy will severely hurt the fight against obesity. According to them, this policy will extend the queues for bariatric surgery (known as "gastric bypass surgery"), which leads to weight loss of obese people - and saves their lives.
The doctors' struggle, revealed here for the first time, began following the joint intention of the Ministries of Health and Finance to reduce by about 50 percent the rate of bariatric surgeries paid by the health funds to the public hospitals in the country - as well as to reduce supplementary insurance for private hospitals.
The issue is currently being discussed in the joint pricing committee for the Ministries of Finance and Health.
The Ministry of Health, which submitted the proposal for a reduction in surgery rates, stated that for the hospitals these were "high-profit" surgeries, and that the decision to perform them "may involve a non-material and professional consideration".
Bariatric surgeries lead to successful weight loss among about 7,000 Israelis a year who suffer from extreme obesity.
According to the health system, about 30 percent of adult Israelis are obese.
Not only that, but the cost of treating obesity for the health system and all state authorities is estimated at about NIS 20 billion a year.
Dr. Nasser Curious, Photo: Gil Eliyahu Ginny
The heads of the Association of Surgeons in the Medical Association wrote to the Ministry of Health this week that bariatric surgery, in addition to the desired weight loss, also brings relief from problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and cancer.
These surgeries, they added, are performed only after the approval of special committees in the hospitals - so that "only the appropriate ones are operated on, and the possibility is avoided that patients will only be operated on according to 'profitability'."
The surgeons also wrote that cutting surgery rates would hurt those in need of public medicine.
"Turning surgery into a loss," they wrote, "will result in a significant and deliberate decrease in the number of surgeries in public hospitals, despite the increase in the number of patients required for them.
The application is signed by the Chairman of the Association of Surgeons, Prof. Yoram Kluger, and the Chairman of the Society for Bariatric Surgery in the Association of Surgeons, Dr. Nasser Curious.
Dr. Dror Dicker, chairman of the Israeli Association for the Treatment of Obesity at the Medical Association and one of the country's leading experts in the fight against obesity, also warned the Ministry of Health about the consequences of reducing surgery rates.
"There is no similar tool in terms of effectiveness in reducing mortality and morbidity among obese people," he said.
The chairman of the National Diabetes Council in the Ministry of Health, Prof. Itamar Raz, also wrote to the director general of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Nachman Ash, that the surgery "returns the investment and even saves money."
The Ministry of Health stated in response that "the pricing of the bariatric system was distributed for consultation and the ministry intends to exhaust the dialogue with various parties, including the doctors' associations, before referring to the price committee." .
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
