100 doctors, senior medical officials in Israel, demand that Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz cancel his ministry's plan to halve the cost of gastric bypass surgery.
The reason: the drastic reduction will lead to "abandonment of obese people" and "risk to life".
In an unprecedented letter sent to the Minister yesterday - following the exposure about a month and a half ago in "Israel Today" about the surgeons' struggle to sharply cut these surgery prices - petitioners express "our firm opposition to the Ministry of Health's intention to harm morbidly obese and risk their lives. The bariatric surgeries (gastric shortening; RR) that take place in public hospitals in Israel. "
The letter is signed by the heads of the Association of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery of the Medical Association, headed by Dr. Nasser Curious, together with about 100 specialist doctors, some of whom are heads of departments in hospitals, surgery, internal medicine, cardiology, nephrology, family medicine and more.
The authors mention in their address that Horowitz himself declared in the Knesset earlier this month that "bariatric surgery is an important and life-saving operation," but in practice, they say,
"As someone who has boasted about his activities for equality and fights for the weak in society, we are surprised that you are actually helping to harm the health of underprivileged populations in the social and geographical periphery, in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sector, in moshavim and kibbutzim, and choose to risk their lives." In the long run, and we hope that it will work to eliminate it while allocating budgets to build comprehensive treatment for obesity. "
Minister Horowitz, Photo: Noam Moskowitz, Knesset Spokeswoman
"Pricing from a position"
"Treating morbid obesity is one of the leading challenges of the healthcare system in the current era," the doctors wrote.
"This is a real patient, causing many health problems and life-threatening, and many studies around the world unequivocally indicate that the most effective way to win the fight against it is metabolic surgery (bypass of the duodenum and reduction of gastric volume; RR) and bariatric.
It is the only tool that has been proven to be effective in overcoming diabetes and maintaining patient weight over time.
As with any medical procedure, bariatric surgery will also be priced in an orderly manner by a committee that examined the issue in depth just a few years ago, calculated the actual cost of the surgeries and priced them accordingly. "Make it an assigned surgery that public hospitals will avoid performing, or reduce the number of surgeries dramatically, despite the increase in the number of patients required each year in Israel.
According to the doctors, "If the decision is implemented - we will unfortunately see more vulnerable populations, without private health insurance, joining groups suffering from morbid obesity and the associated morbidity, and - life-threatening. The pricing process must be stopped immediately, especially when the process is biased, and out "A pre-determined position. It is clear to everyone that reducing the price of bariatric surgery will significantly reduce the only effective treatment option today in the drug basket for the obese patient population, which suffers from high morbidity and mortality levels, severe stigmas and severe lack of treatment options."
Meanwhile, MK Mazen Ghanaim (RAAM) told Israel Today yesterday that he intends to meet with Minister Horowitz in the coming days and work to ensure that this move, which could be devastating and severely damage the health and lives of Israelis in general, and Arab society in particular - It's off the agenda. "
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