Cost of morbid obesity surgery hits €3m

Taxpayers are having to tighten their belts so overweight patients are able to tighten theirs again, new figures have revealed.

Almost €3m was spent performing surgical procedures for morbid obesity in public hospitals over the past five years.

The costly operations are designed to encourage weight loss by surgically altering the process of digestion or by reducing the size of a patient’s stomach in order to limit food intake.