University Debate Script: Morbid Obesity Surgery Access Debate

This debate script examines the complex issue of surgery access for morbidly obese individuals, focusing on the motion that such patients should not receive surgery until they have intentionally lost weight. The script references the NHS policy implemented in 2012, which restricted non-urgent surgeries for obese individuals who had not demonstrated weight loss. The script presents arguments for the motion, citing statistics on obesity prevalence in the UK, potential surgical complications associated with obesity, and the benefits of pre-surgery weight loss, including reduced risks and improved patient health outcomes. It also addresses counterarguments related to patient safety and financial considerations, emphasizing the importance of patient responsibility and long-term health benefits. The script uses references to support the arguments and aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the debate.

Running head: DEBATE SCRIPT WRITING
Debate Script Writing
Name of the University
Name of the Student
Authors Note
Total Word Count: 800

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DEBATE SCRIPT WRITING
The problem of obesity has hit hard the human race over the past 30 years, and the
numbers of obesity and overweight people are quite alarming. In this context, no medical
practitioner will deny the risk of surgery in morbidly obese people.
Greetings to one and all present in this debate discussion. The debate topic is “People
who are morbidly obese should not have access to surgery until they have intentionally lost
weight” and I will speak for the motion.
The whole affair of denying surgery to the obsess people started with the
announcement of NHS in 2012. According to the policy of NHS, the obese people who have
the need for non-urgent surgery will not get one if they are not losing their weight
intentionally. Well, it is also clearly mentioned in the policy paper that the decision would be
changed in exceptional circumstances (Cummings & Cohen, 2016). Many people and
healthcare organizations started to protest against this decision of NHS and started calling it a
part of medical discrimination.
One has to understand the factors that have influenced NHS to take such decisions in their
policymaking. The statistics of obesity will speak for that. According to a research report
published by the Parliament of the UK in 2019, the percentage of obese adults in the UK is
28.7%. 35.6% are between overweight and obesity. The obesity numbers in children are even
more disturbing. 9.5 % of the children in the age group of 4-5 are the prey of obesity, and
12.8% are overweight (research briefings.parliament.uk 2019). When on the other hand, in
the age group of 10-11, every 200 children in 1000 are obese, and 142 are overweight. This
picture of obesity and overweight was the main concern of NHS when setting the policies
regarding the non-emergency surgeries of obese people.
Now let us consider the negative impacts of high obesity and relapse tendencies of
surgery among the obese people. Excessive weight could make the patient susceptible to a

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number of complications and side effects. If the BMI is not less than 30, the patient might
suffer from post-surgical side effects for a long time. The anaesthesia for the surgery could be
a challenge for the doctors, and that would affect the surgery as well. Locating the veins,
deciding the doses for medication, enhanced consciousness regaining time and recover time
(Abdelaal, le Roux & Docherty, 2017). The only way pout to reduce these risks is to improve
health before surgery. The after-effects of the surgery can be managed only if the person is
ready to reduce obesity before surgery under the supervision of the doctor.
Obesity makes the process of surgery more complicated, and therefore, the policy of
NHS positively addresses the context. Keeping in mind all these statistics, the aspect of
delaying non-urgent surgery in obese people seems to be quite rational. In this process, the
obese people would be more health-conscious. The problem of obesity could be controlled as
the patients would get their motivation for losing weight. To avoid the adverse reactions of
surgery the obese people who have a BMI of 30 or more have to reduce weight by 10%. The
people would get more responsible for their own health. Not only that, if people are able to
gain the targeted weight, they could avoid other health risks related to obesity. The list of
such health hazards is long, including type 2 diabetes, serious heart disease and other joint
and bone problems (Deakin, Iyayi-Igbinovia & Love, 2018).
The decisions of delaying the surgery for the obese people until they get ready by
losing weight is quite logical. The safety of the patients immediately and after the non-urgent
surgery would be increased in this process. Some of the critics are stating that NHS has taken
this step only to have financial savings for the time being. It has been made clear by the
institution that this policy is solely designed for patient safety improvement, and no financial
profits are related to it. There are many free support systems for obese people where they can
register themselves and get help in losing weight. The positive result of this could be realized

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in the long-term when the percentage of obese people will be decreased. The world would be
healthier than ever.
Patients with critical conditions are not denied for surgery for their obesity. People
have to understand that the policy of NHS is only for the non-urgent surgeries and could be
changed whenever exceptions happen. Therefore, there is no risk of patient health
deterioration. If a patient could get a healthier life, post-operation risk reduction assurance
and less complicated surgery, then the mere wait and weight loss regime of nine months
should not be a problem. Rather, it seems to be a fair great deal to accept.

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References
Abdelaal, M., le Roux, C. W., & Docherty, N. G. (2017). Morbidity and mortality associated
with obesity. Annals of translational medicine, 5(7).
Cummings, D. E., & Cohen, R. V. (2016). Bariatric/metabolic surgery to treat type 2 diabetes
in patients with a BMI< 35 kg/m2. Diabetes Care, 39(6), 924-933.
Deakin, A. H., Iyayi-Igbinovia, A., & Love, G. J. (2018). A comparison of outcomes in
morbidly obese, obese and non-obese patients undergoing total primary knee and total
hip arthroplasty. The Surgeon, 16(1), 40-45.
Research briefings.parliament.uk (2019), Obesity Statistics, retrieved from
https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN03336