Consultant Laparoscopic & Bariatric Surgeon
Weight Loss & Maintenance During COVID-19
- Have you gained weight during lockdown?
- Are you worried about contracting COVID 19?
- What do you care most about? “Will I be safe?”
As a weight loss expert, I can see that the above concerns are resting heavily on a lot of people’s minds. My job is to make any patient encounter or intervention with you as safe as possible.
COVID 19 Procedures
Our clinic wants to ensure you about the measures we have undertaken to prevent spread of COVID 19. First and foremost, to minimise any face to face interaction, I and my team can offer remote online consultations for almost all the conditions we treat.
Secondly the Bupa Cromwell hospital is a COVID free / negative hospital. This is ensured by strictly testing all patients through taking swabs BEFORE admission. No visitors are allowed onto the patient floors. Anyone, including all healthcare staff, has to undergo rigorous assessment for clinical symptoms and fever measurement before they are allowed into the building. This ensures an extremely safe environment where you can be confident that all precautions that can be undertaken, have been undertaken to minimise risk of catching COVID 19.
Furthermore, if it helps, we can also arrange a limousine pick-up* to bring you to our hospital in order to prevent public transportation with our driver wearing PPE and providing you with PPE to wear right from your home to our clinic.
COVID 19 and Excess Weight / Obesity
Three recent studies have found a worrying link between excess weight and COVID 19. The conclusion of these studies is that obesity and excess weight nearly doubles the risk for severe COVID outcomes. However reducing BMI (body mass index) by just an average of 5 points (for the average woman and man; approx 12-16 Kgs) could cut requirement of ICU-level care by half.
Weight Loss Options
During the COVID 19 pandemic, my clinic is encouraging patients to consider two low risk techniques that do not require admission to hospital.
- Medical Weight Loss
- The Allurion Balloon Pill
Medical Weight Loss
From online consultations with our specialist bariatric dieticians, psychologists and personal fitness trainers to using state of the art pharmacotherapy, our clinic covers all aspects of medical weight loss. We can offer all assessments via remote online consultations and also despatch prescriptions to your local pharmacy or even your home. For more information on new medications for weight loss, click here.
Allurion Balloon Pill
Unlike traditional balloons that need to be inserted (and removed) using a short endoscopic procedure requiring sedation/anaesthesia, the Allurion balloon pill is simply swallowed in our office or x-ray suite. We perform an x-ray to confirm the pill transformation into a balloon. The balloon stays inside your stomach promoting fullness and satiety and after 4 months spontaneously dissolves and is excreted during a bowel movement. Recent studies demonstrate approximately 8-12 Kgs weight loss with the Allurion.
During the current COVID 19 pandemic, we believe that offering the above interventions (as opposed to more invasive procedures) has the following advantages:
- Easier environment to control and monitor
- Less crowded or even totally home based, less risk of exposure to infection
- No risk from endoscopy or anaesthesia
