Wait Times Too Long For Gastric By-Pass Surgery

With years long waits for gastric bypass surgery in Canada people who need it the most die in line. 500,000 Canadians are now considered morbidly obese. The disease puts them at risk for diabetes, heart problems and arthritis

For the morbidly obese sometimes gastric bypass is the only way to get weight under control. Diets don't have a long term effect and exercise is too painful. The surgery involves making the stomach smaller and allowing food to bypass part of the small intestine. OHIP pays for the surgery but the waiting line for it is staggering. Currently the province does 500 surgeries a year. The need is for 3,500 just to keep up. In 2006 394 Ontarians were sent to the States for the procedure. This cost twice as much than if the operations had been performed at home. Dr. Arya Sharma a professor of medicine at Hamilton's McMaster University has had some of his patients literally die before they could get the operation they had been approved for to save their lives. Jamie Bogart waited seven long years prior to his death. A letter approving him for gastric bypass surgery arrived three days after his death.

"It is a disease that kills young people and there are a lot of Jamies out there -- and if they don't get medical help they are going to have the same story happen to them," he said.