The acting chief of the Bariatric section at HMC, Dr Moataz Bashah.
By Azmat Haroon
Doha: Nearly 3,000 people are waiting to undergo weight-loss surgery at Hamad General Hospital (HGH), the majority of them young Qatari women, according to a senior doctor.
The hospital conducts five to 10 weight reduction operations on a daily basis, which includes bypass or sleeve gastrectomy, Dr Moataz Bashah, the acting chief of the bariatric section at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), said.
“We have a long waiting list of about 2,500 to 3,000 people. The list was accumulated in the last one year. There has been a huge demand for weight-loss procedures this year,” Dr Bashah told The Peninsula.
He said 80 percent of the patients were Qataris and 70 percent of them were women.
As per the priority list, first preference is given to patients who are scheduled to undergo a transplant operation or surgery, followed by patients with diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiac problems. The third priority is young women.
“Obese females are likely to have Cesarian, and it’s likely that such patients will have diabetes in the long run. The best time to do the surgery for females is when they are between the ages of 15 and 25.” Weight-loss surgery is free for Qataris and it costs patients of other nationalities QR5,000 at HMC. Some private clinics in the country charge up to QR20,000 for the same procedure.
Dr Bashah said one of the main reasons why women faced fertility issues in Qatar was obesity as fat causes hormonal dysfunction in the body.
“Fat is not only fat. It eats hormones, in females, it secretes more oestrogen and at the same time it produces androgen, Dr Bashah said, adding that fat caused the ovary to function improperly.
“Once the amount of fat comes down in the body and the hormonal problem is corrected, there is a very high chance of having a child,” he said, adding that many cases are referred by gynaecologists.
The youngest patient to go through the weight loss surgery was a 13-year-old Qatari boy. The surgery was done one year ago and the boy lost close to 60 kg in one surgery. The boy had become obese because his parents simply gave him too much to eat. Another Qatari patient that went through the surgery weighed as much as 630 kg.
In view of the high number of patients, HMC is also planning to open a new operative theatre with a dedicated room for paediatrics.
Dr Bashah said while the surgery improves the quality of life of obese people and others with diabetes, the surgery cannot be successful if patients do not change their lifestyle.
“The surgery is not magic. It can do 60 percent of the job but if you do not follow a healthy lifestyle, you will start to gain weight after a couple of years.”
He said some 25 percent of the patients come back after a couple of years because they are not satisfied with the results. “Patients are very anxious to lose weight by surgery but the commitment of the patients is very important. “They should show us commitment they have to follow certain type of diet and that they will exercise for at least six months before surgery,” he said. In some cases, patients are also told that they can lose weight even without surgery.
The surgery time for sleeve procedures takes one hour, while bypass and gastric bypass can go from two to three hours.
Bashah said initially many in Qatar were sceptical about these surgeries but now the hospital is treating entire families.
“Once a man from a family sees how much his has improved, his blood sugar level improves, there is no snoring, he becomes a new person, he brings others. We are now operating on entire families,” he added. The Peninsula
