Every time I cover body contouring after weight-loss/bariatric surgery my inbox goes wild! Surgery delivers/helps/promotes weight-loss (especially if you follow the guidelines and lose the amount you are recommended to do and then maintain it) but so many patients are left with excess skin and feel their journey is incomplete without further help. I sympathise – so many other patients with other obesity-related and lifestyle-associated diseases/conditions get corrective surgery but wls patients often don’t.
I always say press on/appeal/challenge and don’t give up but it’s sometimes such an uphill struggle that I know spirits dip and the outlook looks bleak. It doesn’t help in the UK that there are no firm ‘rules’ for this and there certainly seems to be a postcode-lottery at work.
Guidelines for massive weight loss body contouring on the NHS in the UK have recently been published and Can be viewed here
If they are implemented then the outlook looks better – and George Osborne has just pledged 2 billion pounds extra to the NHS (will bariatric and corrective contouring surgery benefit?).
If I were looking at body contouring I would also consider some private scheme if I couldn’t wait – I did this for my own bariatric surgery in the first place (which wouldn’t have been funded by the NHS) – I will look and check out the deals and report back for those who can go such a route since there are bound to be deals and those to avoid. In the meantime we watch and wait ….