Hospital oversubscribed for weight-loss surgery

More than 130 severely obese adults are on a waiting list for weight-loss surgery at a public hospital that can only do about 25 such procedures a year.

Professor Donal O’Shea, consultant endocrinologist at St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, said those awaiting gastric band surgery only represented a fraction of those who needed it.

Prof O’Shea, who is director of the obesity clinic at St Columcille’s, said it was the only centre operating in the public system.