Nearly 100 morbidly obese patients have weight loss surgery

Nearly 100 morbidly obese people underwent surgical procedures in public hospitals last year to help reduce the amount of food they can eat at a cost of more than €685,000, new figures reveal.

It represents a 20% rise in the number of patients getting of the surgery since last year, and brings the total amount spent on the procedures to €4.2m since 2009.

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.