Type 2 diabetics face three-year wait for gastric surgery

Gastric surgery should be routinely available to people with type 2 diabetes, international experts say, but anyone wanting it in Ireland will have to wait three years.

New guidelines agreed by international diabetes organisations state that bariatric surgery should be recommended to treat people with type 2 diabetes who are obese or morbidly obese.

Consultant endocrinologist and diabetes expert, Dr Francis Finucane, said he would be offering bariatric surgery to more patients with type 2 diabetes on the basis of the new guidelines.