{"id":134116,"date":"2025-11-14T04:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T04:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/134116\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T04:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T04:41:16","slug":"manawatu-case-sparks-warning-over-predatory-overseas-weight-loss-surgery-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/134116\/","title":{"rendered":"Manawat\u016b case sparks warning over \u2018predatory\u2019 overseas weight loss surgery ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s really exploded in the last, I would say, 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

French said that this is due to \u201cpredatory\u201d online advertising targeting specific populations in the country, in particular M\u0101ori people, particularly from more \u201cdeprived\u201d areas. <\/p>\n

The surgeon explained that having a surgery like a gastric sleeve, which involves removing about 80% of the outer part of the stomach, is better for patients to have in New Zealand due to the data stored around them.<\/p>\n

\"Manawat\u016bManawat\u016b woman Helen Watson has spent six weeks in hospital since returning from a gastric sleeve operation in Turkey, unable to eat, drink or walk. Photo \/ Jimmy Ellingham, RNZ<\/p>\n

\u201cWe broadly know what the complication is in this country because we have an Australasian registry which pretty much all the bariatric surgeons in this country contribute to. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an Australian, New Zealand database of bariatric operations which monitors how patients do, so, we broadly know the serious complication rate is probably in that 1 to 2% range. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the overseas surgery, we have no idea what that rate is because we don\u2019t know the denominator of how many people are going.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people are being promised a cheap fix on social media and more needs to be done domestically to help those looking to go abroad for cosmetic surgery. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m seeing is relatively deprived people, like particularly M\u0101ori with bad metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, quite high BMIs, they\u2019re going over. <\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth NZ said it is aware that an increasing number of New Zealanders are traveling overseas for surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to look after them here. So, it\u2019s a failure of the country to look after their people adequately. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have better public access to not just bariatric surgery, but the range of proper treatments for obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

French adds that a better understanding of bariatric surgery and obesity from private health insurers might also help to limit the number of people looking abroad.<\/p>\n

Health officials confirmed more Kiwis were heading offshore for medical treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware of an increasing number of New Zealanders travelling overseas for surgery.\u201d Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, Health New Zealand\u2019s National Chief Medical Officer, told the Herald.<\/p>\n

Stokes-Lampard said Health NZ encourage people to carefully consider their options and understand the risk of these surgeries. <\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth New Zealand chief medical officer Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard said it is not recommended New Zealanders travel abroad for surgery. Photo \/ Health New Zealand<\/p>\n

She said travelling abroad for these types of surgery is not recommended as long-haul travel before and after surgery is high risk.<\/p>\n

There is a higher risk of infection and complications in countries where healthcare is not regulated in the same way as New Zealand and multi-drug resistant bacteria are more common.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 500 bariatric surgeries are publicly funded in New Zealand each year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is an increasing number of options as alternatives to surgery, for some people surgery remains the best option.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is on continuing to improve access and reduce waitlists to see more patients across districts within four months for first specialist assessments and elective procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

French encouraged people who were looking abroad for weight loss surgery to make sure their GP has tried the public sector first, particularly if they have a long-term issue such as type 2 diabetes. <\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth NZ said about 500 bariatric surgeries are publicly funded in New Zealand each year. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

French also added that gastric sleeve surgery was often the wrong type of procedure for many people who might be getting them overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor most people that\u2019s the wrong operation,\u201d French told the Herald, \u201cand it\u2019s got poorer results and high rates of bad reflux long term\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just think the surgery fixes them and I\u2019ve seen over some 20 years, I\u2019ve seen a lot of patients do well, but I\u2019ve seen many patients regain the weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he acknowledged people are still going to have these types of procedures domestically and abroad, so advised these patients to have proper post-operative follow-up for at least a year. <\/p>\n

The key piece of advice he had was to make sure after surgery to have a proper follow-up, and a lifestyle change to keep the weight off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s really exploded in the last, I would say, 18 months.\u201d French said that this is due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30250,3225,3113,682,1121,8452,2225,10509,111,43,139,69,1523,3236,25087,8207,63439,65837,6290,1458,1455,18216,24750],"class_list":["post-134116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abroad","tag-according","tag-ads","tag-being","tag-case","tag-dangerous","tag-loss","tag-manawat","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-overseas","tag-predatory","tag-sparks","tag-surgeon","tag-surgeries","tag-surgery","tag-targeted","tag-warning","tag-weight","tag-zealanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}