> But the new rules, drawn up by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Hertfordshire, say that obese patients “will not get non-urgent surgery until they reduce their weight” at all, unless the circumstances are exceptional.

And what is "non-urgent surgery"? Who knows. If you need knee surgery, it's probably not urgent, but you may not be able to work without it, thus having very high social costs (unemployment, disability benefits, lost labor, ...) as well as very high personal costs. But NHS almost certainly doesn't have the resources even to consider the negative externalities of this policy -- they are acting out of desperation.