The hardest step - approaching healthcare professionals to ask for help with obesity By Stephanie deGiorgio
Writing this has been something I have been a little nervous about doing. As a GP I intensely dislike reading articles about how bad we are at doing certain things and so I didn’t want to just write one of those. As someone who has been significantly overweight and who talks to others in that position, I am acutely aware that a large part of the health profession and in fact the system as a whole is letting down a large number of those who approach it for help with the chronic disease that is obesity. I should start by explaining that I had a gastric sleeve operation in April 2017. It has been life changing for me and I bring that experience and those of being an overweight patient as well as a GP looking after patients with weight problems into this blog. Like many people I had tried for years to lose weight and had been successful many times. But also like mamy people, in fact 95% of those who are obese and lose weight, it soul-destroyingly all went back on again with extra.