The waiting period to receive obesity surgery in the Norwegian health service is between 13 and 15 months.
That is twice as long as in Sweden, and one third choose to pay for a private operation.
Villy Våge was the first to perform such operations in Norway, and he is the current leader of the Norwegian Quality Register for Obesity Surgery.
For the first time, the register has conducted a nationwide overview of how long patients must wait, wrote Bergens Tidende newspaper.
‘The waiting period has probably decreased in Norway in recent years. One reason is that many patients have had obesity operations privately, partly because of the long waiting period in the public sector. It creates a two-tier health care system. This seems unfair’, said Våge.
Today, around 3,000 patients in Norway receive obesity surgery every year.
‘The public is almost never buying such operations in the private sector in Sweden’, said Våge, who compared the waiting time in Norway, and our neighbours to the east. In Sweden, the overall treatment period of six months waiting time also applies to obesity operations.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
