Obesity surgery case fails at the Court of Appeal

Tom Condliff, the ex-policeman who has taken his case for funding for obesity surgery from his local health authority to the Court of Appeal, has lost his appeal, it has emerged.
Mr Condliff, who is 22 stone, from Stoke-on-Trent and has a body mass index (BMI) of 43, claims he requires a gastric bypass operation to help save his life after becoming obese because of the drug therapies he takes to treat his long-term diabetes condition.
He argued that the decision by North Staffordshire primary care trust (PCT) to turn down funding for the surgery was illegal, despite his BMI being lower than PCT rules about the qualifying criteria, which say that only patients with a BMI of over 50 should be routinely treated with weight loss surgery in North Staffordshire.
Although the judges said they had considerable sympathy for the case, they ruled the funding decision and PCT policy was not legally flawed and a breach of human rights laws, as he claims . This follows an earlier High Court challenge by Mr Condliff in April this year.
Mr Condliff says he has tried non-surgical interventions such as dieting, lifestyle changes and drugs that benefit weight reductio, but to no avail.