Gastric bypass operations to resume at Dublin hospital
Gastric bypass operations are to resume at a Dublin hospital, after cuts stopped the programme for almost a year.
Some 250 people are currently on the waiting list for surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital. Only 50 operations will take place this year, however.
Obesity experts are gathering in Farmleigh in Dublin today to discuss a national response to the worsening problem.
Professor Donal O’Shea is welcoming the resumption of gastric surgery, but he cautioned that prevention is key.
"We've been given the go-ahead to restart our surgical programme and that's due to get going again in the middle of May, with a view to increasing the number of surgeries that we will perform in 2016 from the 50 we're funded to do this year to in the region of 80 or 100 in 2016," he said.
"But today is all about the prevention piece, so we cannot treat our way out of the obesity epidemic."
