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" In a bid to tackle the increasingly prevalent problem of obesity-related type 2 diabetes in the UK, new guidelines are being drafted outlining plans for the extension of surgery to a greater number of overweight patients. The National Institute of Health Care and Excellence (NICE) has produced the document, which suggests bariatric - weight loss - surgery should be an option for people with a high body mass index (BMI) who also have type 2 diabetes. Currently, individuals with a BMI or 35 or over and who have other potentially life-threatening health conditions are entitled to free weight loss operations on the NHS, but this could be extended to diabetic patients too thanks to the NICE guidelines. The most common types of surgery that would be made available to these patients would be gastric band procedures, whereby the size of the stomach is dramatically reduced, as well as gastric bypasses, which involve the digestive system being diverted to avoid the majority of the stomach, leading to an individual feeling fuller faster. Before an operation was carried out, patients would need to be assessed, with all those with a BMI or 35 or higher who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the last ten years entitled to this. Speaking to the BBC, author of the draft guidelines professor Mark Baker explained: &amp;#039;It would be between 5,000 and 20,000 operations a year, but we haven&amp;#039;t done the modelling.&amp;#039; However, charity Diabetes UK predicts up to 850,000 patients with the condition could be eligible for the surgery if all those with a BMI of 30 are included too. Even without these individuals, it still believes the actual figure who are automatically assessed will be in the region of 460,000. This would be a significant increase, as currently only around 8,000 patients receive such operations on the NHS.\u00A0 With each procedure costing approximately \u00A315,000 to carry out, there are concerns the health service may not be able to cope with the financial burden, but as type 2 diabetes can potentially lead to nerve damage, loss of sight and even amputations, action may be needed to prevent an epidemic. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/news/a25195/diabetics-may-get-nhs-weight-loss-surgery/>