In my opinion, the most important part of a patient's weight loss sugery is choosing a good, safe surgeon. Get that right and everything else will fall into place. Get
it wrong and run the risk of life-changing complications.
Patient feedback can only tell you part of the story; it will tell you whether other patients, think this surgeon seems like a good person. It will tell you whether
the organisation the surgeon works for is efficient and well organised, or not. It will tell you whether the aftercare is good, but it cannot tell you if a surgeon, is competent or not. Finding that
out isn't easy, published data on the NBSR (https://nbsr.e-dendrite.com) and the private healthcare information network (https://PHIN.org.uk) websites helps, but really only another surgeon, can
judge wether his colleague is technically able or not. There are plenty of technically out-standing surgeons out there, with terrible bed side manners and vice versa. Worryingly, it can be the
latter, who often get the out-standing reviews!
Below is a small selection of the Thank You cards, I've received over the past 16 sixteen years, I've been a consultant bariatric surgeon. I never tire of reading, how
patients lives have changed for the better, after weight loss surgery, its what first attracted me to the speciality, in Australia in 2003. I was struck by how many happy patients, I saw in clnic,
post-operation, which was in stark contrast to my experience in cancer surgery. But remember, my surgical contribution to the journey is approximately one to two hours long; all the really hard work
is done by the patient.
If you want to check me out properly, you can find my outcome data on the NBSR and PHIN websites, or better still ask one of my colleagues.
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