THE chair of an NHS group has defended its decision to deny smokers and the morbidly obese routine surgery until they quit or lose weight.

The Northern, East-ern and Western Devon Clinical Commission-ing Group say the measures are 'urgent and necessary' to prioritise the requirements laid out in the NHS constitution.

Dr Tim Burke, chair of the group, said: 'Last month we announced that demand for services was outstripping what we can afford. We could not allow this to continue and therefore had to take urgent measures to protect priority services.

'GPs who work for the CCG reviewed a number of potential measures and all were considered against clinical criteria.

'We then decided on a series of measures to implement, including asking people to lose weight and give up smoking before routine surgery.'

The group decided that for patients undergoing hip and knee operations with a body mass index of more than 35 the patient would be required to have a BMI of under 35 or to lose five per cent of their weight before planned surgery.

The CCG has now announced that it will be temporarily extending the BMI requirement to all routine surgery. However, urgent treatment will not be delayed.

It said it would extend the quit smoking requirement from the original proposal of six weeks to eight weeks before planned surgery.

Dr Burke added: 'We did this because it is widely recognised that patients who are overweight should aim to lose weight and smokers should stop smoking to improve their general health.

'There is clear evidence of better results for patients where they lose weight or quit smoking before undergoing surgery.

'We consider that this is a reasonable way for us to carry out the duties of the CCG.

'In all cases, decisions are currently interim or temporary commissioning positions based on current clinical evidence and we will go on to consult further with local people, specialists and local GPs in 2015 before making any longer term decisions.

Regrettably, we have been inaccurately reported as introducing a 'blanket ban' on surgery for these groups.

This is not and never has been the case.'

The quit smoking and the BMI requirements will be introduced immediately.

Patients with a date for surgery will not be affected by the policy, but will be offered weight management or quit smoking support.

All other patients that are covered by the policy will be offered weight management or quit smoking support.