The fact that you are reading this means you have some kind of interest in Weight Loss Surgery. Whether that be as a patient, medical practitioner or someone with a vested interest we can assure you of a very warm welcome.

To access the member's only areas of the site you will need to register for free by completing an application to join Owlss.

I hope you will find the Owlss website helpful and look forward to welcoming you.

Colin

Owlss Founder

At March's Sunday's Hull Group Meeting we discussed the low numbers attending these days and we all came to the conclusion that as NHS funding is virtually dried up on the North Bank so too has the number of new pre-op members. Obviously this is quite the reverse in Scunthorpe where record numbers attend. Just like the old days in Hull.

Any way, we also reckoned the lovely weather has also an effect so we discussed the idea of changing back to an evening so more members could attend.  I am pleased to say Denise from the Spire agrees and we are therefore changing the Hull group Meetings to the last Wednesday of the month (from May) starting at 7.30pm and finishing around 9.00pm.

Due to the restaurant being already booked for Wednesday 25 April we will hold the Hull meeting on TUESDAY 24 April and then the last Wednesday of the month thereafter.

For direction to the hospital, please click here.

After looking on the internet I discovered that there is a vast variation across the country in the criteria to be met in order to be considered for weight loss surgery funding and thought it might be interesting to compare the different requirements.

The current NICE guidelines include a recommended BMI of over 40 or 35 with co-morbibities.

Think again!

I am often asked by members whether there is a requirement to disclose the fact that they have had weight loss surgery when purchasing travel insurance before a holiday abroad.

This is a rather grey area which I will attempt here to give some guidance on.

Firstly, whilst I accept that cost is a big consideration when buying travel insurance, it should not necessarily be the deciding factor. It is far more important to ensure you are adequately covered should anything go wrong whilst away.  This is particularly important for our members who have had weight loss surgery, especially during the first year when everything is just settling down, the surgery area is healing and you are still experimenting with what foods you can eat.