GASTRIC band surgery famously undergone by celebrities such as TV presenter Fern Britton will be available at the Countess of Chester Hospital from October.
Morbidly obese patients from Cheshire, Wirral and Greater Manchester will be referred to a service housed within a new unit at the rear of the hospital.
It will involve a partnership with private sector firm Gravitas, which will provide specialist consultants to carry out gastric band and gastric bypass surgery for patients whose lives are in danger.
In both cases the stomach is made smaller to restrict the amount of food that can be consumed.
Obesity has become an epidemic in Britain due to sedentary lifestyles and poor diets leading to health complications which, as well as causing suffering, are expensive to treat.
Overweight patients are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, musculoskeletal disease, reproductive disorders and respiratory disorders.
Ian Harvey, medical director at the Countess, said of gastric bypass surgery: “There is plenty of evidence now to indicate it’s incredibly cost-effective for the health economy.
“The savings in terms of the health for obese patients is incredible – the complications they suffer is all a consequence of obesity. If that’s managed effectively then we are not having to manage the complications and they are not having to suffer them.”
Chief executive Peter Herring said the hospital had no choice other than to work with a private provider in order to bid to run the service as it was not possible to train up its own surgeons in such a short time.
“We don’t have the expertise to do it,” said Mr Herring.
“We have very limited private-sector exposure. This is about enhancing the level of service we can provide to NHS patients.”
