Why Choose The National Obesity
Surgery Centre?

Obesity surgery (or weight loss surgery / bariatric surgery) is one of the fastest growing areas of private medicine in the UK, and prospective patients are presented with an ever growing number of individual practitioners and organisations offering them their own favoured particular procedure or product.

Choosing which procedure to opt for and where to go, can be confusing. At The National Obesity Surgery Centre we have considerable experience in the long term management of overweight people. We are justly proud of our own exclusive Stomach Balloon Programme.

This is solidly based upon our understanding that the management of obesity has much in common with the management of other chronic incurable medical conditions; such as asthma or diabetes. We have developed a dedicated mentoring system that allows our stomach balloon patients from anywhere in the world to achieve the very best from their balloon.

And, for those who are prepared to throw themselves into the programme properly, it works extremely well indeed. The fact that we provide the majority of all the balloons in the UK bears considerable testament to this. Many have tried to copy us. None have succeeded.

Now to an extremely important point..

ANY ANTI-OBESITY TREATMENT CAN BE “GOT AROUND” IF THE PATIENT CHOOSES TO DO SO. NO MATTER HOW “BIG” THE OPERATION, THE PATIENT CAN CHEAT AND SPOIL THE RESULTS – ie  NOT LOSE WEIGHT!

You may be astounded that any patient might do that. But from time to time they do. Most do not do it deliberately, they just need more support.

It is well established that the key to making the stomach balloon or gastric band work to its best potential is to provide this aftercare and support. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of our patients are contacted weekly for up to one year.

Unfortunately, similar degrees of support are not generally available to patients who have an adjustable gastric band; especially if they have had it placed overseas. Many patients may not require this level of counselling and advice, but many others will.

The problem for these patients is that very few providers of the gastric band in the UK have such expertise at their fingertips. However, at The National Obesity Surgery Centre, we are perfectly placed to make our expert team of mentors available to any gastric band patient that might be struggling with their band, and needing more intensive help or advice. Most may not need it, but for many it will be the difference between success and failure.

At The National Obesity Surgery Centre we are constantly re-evaluating the range of alternative adjustable gastric bands available. Currently, we recommend the Lap-Band system, believing it to be proven to be:

• Safe

• Predictable

• With a long history of clinical experience

• Easily adjusted and removed

• Backed up by a highly professional and efficient support team

• Respected by the most experienced clinicians in this field

It is true that there are many other much cheaper gastric bands available to surgeons. At The National Obesity Surgery Centre, we believe that we have made the right choice for our patients in opting for the Lap-Band at this time.

Further, we are pleased that our surgeons report an extremely low complication and re-operation rate with its use over many years. Should this position change, we would of course recommend a different gastric band system for our patients.

Occasionally, clinical circumstances do dictate the use of an alternative system. This decision must be made by our surgeons, and must never be based on cost. Consequently, as a Centre and as advised by our surgeons, we have adopted a policy of using the Lap-Band as a routine.

In doing so, we have also decided not to pass any of the additional cost of using this system onto our patients. We believe this to be the right course of action to ensure patient safety; product quality; and value for money.