Patrica Hewitt Health Secretary Visionary or Quack?


Bit strong your thinking, what possible could provoke such a question? Recently the Health Secretary explicitly endorsed the controversial policy of some Health trusts of refusing treatment to the Obese and Smokers.

Consider this, 20% of the adult population have a Body Mass Index of 30 or more this means that in excess of 10 million could be refused treatment to improve their health.

The chairman of the National Obesity Forum Dr Colin Waine is quoted as saying "There is absolutely no evidence that people should be refused treatment if they have a body mass index of 40 or below" adding "Turning down hip or knee replacements for those people has no scientific basis whatsoever"

It seems to me the Patrica Hewitt's is looking for some smoke screen to cover cuts to our health service (admittedly not as lack of money but good old fashioned Labour incompetence and greedy health managers), even if there were some scientific basis to this attack on overweight people, why stop at fat people and smokers, what about drug takers, people with sexually transmitted diseases.

Having been overweight most of my life, I have as you can imagine, had abusive comments, sometimes funny, mostly, there mildly offensive and occasionally loathsome but Patrica Hewitt's idea that I'm not entitled Health Care has to be the most insulting yet.

I consider that as a fifth of the country are clinically obese, in addition to being a health problem it might also be considered a Life Style choice, and since different life styles impinge on health, like politicians talking crap all day, its time to accept access to universal health care as a right, which before Hewitt was a minister, used to be a labour policy.

If this Hewitt woman is serious, could she arrange with Gordon Brown to refund my contributions of the last thirty years, and likewise with the other 10 million to be excluded.

Sunday times story