Federal parliament's push for taxpayer-funded stomach reduction surgery for morbidly obese people has been shot down by researchers and health groups.
On Monday, a parliamentary inquiry into obesity urged the federal government to work with the states and territories to ensure obese people are able to access bariatric surgery in the public system if they cannot afford to fund their own treatment in a private hospital.
Bariatric surgery refers to procedures that reduce the size of the stomach, including gastric banding, and can cost up to around $20,000.
The inquiry's report noted the surgery is cost-effective given patients often experience a reduction in Type 2 diabetes after the procedure.
Samantha Thomas, head of Monash University's Consumer Research Group, said there was little long-term evidence to show bariatric surgery worked.
"As time passes, there's a new body of evidence that is starting to emerge which shows lap-band surgery is definitely not as effective as it's made it out to be," she told AAP.
Dr Thomas said the procedure was not proven to prevent future weight gain or problem eating habits, and there were associated problems such as "band erosion," food intolerances, reflux and other digestive disease.
Other studies show people who undergo the surgery go on to commit suicide at five to 10 times the average, she said.
"The study which has the longest follow-up, over 13 years, shows most patients started regaining weight as early as one year after their surgery," Dr Thomas said.
"Surgical solutions are never going to solve a big cultural and societal issue."
The Obesity Policy Coalition, which includes Diabetes Australia Victoria and the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, said the cost of funding the surgery would be huge.
The coalition's senior policy adviser, Jane Martin, said seven million Australians were tipped to be obese by 2025.
"I imagine that quite a lot of those people will qualify for bariatric surgery, now that is going to put a big strain on the hospital system," she told AAP.
"It is really putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff rather than ... putting up a fence at the top."
Ms Martin said recommendations from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing were "soft".
She said the committee should have recommended tougher regulations surrounding junk food television advertising during children's viewing times.
The committee has recommended the government encourage the industry to self-regulate on making food formulations healthier and only act if industry fails to make concrete changes.
Ms Martin said the time for waiting for the industry to self-regulate was over and the government should legislate now.
"(Government) regulation works because if you have a level playing field everyone has to do it," she said.
"The problem with self-regulation is not everybody necessarily signs up."
The Rudd government's National Preventative Health Taskforce is due to release its final report by the end of this month.
Front page
RSS Feed