An alarming number of bariatric surgeons are considering shutting their clinics because of skyrocketing insurance costs and growing malpractice claims.
Bariatric surgery is the most effective, durable and cost-effective weight loss treatment for severe obesity, but new research shows the industry is under threat in Australia because of soaring indemnity insurance premiums.
A survey by the University of Notre Dame Australia, Flinders University and the Australian and New Zealand Metabolic and Obesity Surgical Society found 37 per cent of bariatric surgeons were considering quitting the practice because of the financial burden.
The survey found professional indemnity insurance premiums had risen by 35 per cent in the past year, with an average annual cost of about $70,000. Some surgeons were paying up to $500,000 per year.
Notre Dame researcher and bariatric surgeon Nicholas Williams said insurance costs were driving surgeons out of the industry and reducing access to a life-saving treatment.
This was particularly the case in rural and regional areas and Indigenous communities, where rates of clinically severe obesity were higher and specialists were harder to access.
"Obesity is probably the most important public health issue of our time," Associate Professor Williams said.
"New medications such as Ozempic will be a big part of the future landscape of obesity care, but surgery is still the gold standard because the medications are expensive, they are hard to access and they need to be taken lifelong, which is often not appreciated.
"Obesity disproportionately affects lower socio-economic groups, regional and remote communities and Indigenous populations.
"These are the patients with the greatest need for access to obesity care, and if surgeries are not available publicly then we at least need them to be available as cost effectively and as widely as possible in the private sector."
In Australia, 97 per cent of bariatric surgery operations are performed in the private sector, and private surgeons must have professional indemnity insurance to practice.
According to the survey, 41 per cent of surgeons reported at least one bariatric-related malpractice claim during their career, but only 2 per cent of those claims went to trial.
Associate Professor Williams said he believed law reform was needed to discourage opportunistic litigation and fix what he described as a "broken" medical negligence system.
To read the study, click here.
