Hi! I was wondering if anyone knows if manitoba covers OOC bariatric surgery. Please let me know. Thanks!

Someone may have personal experience & respond, but until then I did find this link within the Province of Manitoba government site which suggests OOC is covered on certain conditions.  I would think bariatric surgery would definitely be one that is covered as it is not offered in the province right now.  lwww.gov.mb.ca/health/mhsip/oop.html

"

Out-of-Province Medical Referrals

Sometimes, a patient needs medical treatment or care that cannot be provided in Manitoba.  Manitoba Health may cover some of the costs of this care, based on a specific approval process.

You may be eligible for help with costs related to getting medical care in another province or country when:

• an appropriate physician recommends that you need a necessary, specific medical service (i.e., care or treatment); and
• that treatment is not available in Manitoba."

Thank you! You are such a sweetheart and might I say.. LOOKING GOOD!!

Oh flattery will get you everywhere with me girl !  Thanks for that - I am feeling really good as well.

Well, no go. Manitoba Health does not approve OOC bariatric surgery. The wait continues... Feeling really discouraged now... Oh well. Thanks for your help

Wow, are you serious?  Did you already get a physician to do the report & recommendation to MHS?    

If the province cannot provide the service, they definitely should cover out of province ... have you looked into the Ontario Bariatric Centres of Excellence?

They do provide out of province. It's just trying to find a surgeon. Dr. Malek is going to be another year at least if he even decides he will do the surgery. I have not looked into the Ontario Bariatric Centres. Manitoba Health won't probably let me switch though... I just don't know what to do. Kara STILL won't return my call.

Hang in there girl, you never know for sure what Dr Malek will decide on your case until he decides & tells you!  As for Kara, she can be difficult that is for sure - but personality aside, she is the person who is the gatekeeper for Dr M, so be persistent.  I can tell you first hand that she is not the quickest off the mark, nor is she good at responding to phone calls.  I always had better luck with her via email - do you have her email address?  If not let me know & I will pass that along to you.

Now, if I were you I would be looking at the Ontario centres girl - the province recently allotted a crap pile of money for these centres & I am suspecting the volume of operations they will be able to handle will be far more than anything we've seen in BC.

Don't forget Alberta or Saskatchewan too - I can recall reading about a centre in Alberta for bariatric surgery - and Sask has leading edge programs for obesity as well.  Being in Manitoba, in the centre of Canada, you have a ton of equal access opportunities!

Here's a news article regarding Alberta and a link to their "Weight Wise" program:  http://www.capitalhealth.ca/EspeciallyFor/WeightWise/default .htm

AHS, U of A bring new bariatric surgery to Alberta

Date: December 03, 2008

EDMONTON, AB - Alberta Health Services (AHS) is now offering a new kind of bariatric surgery hailed for faster healing times and less complications than other bariatric procedures.

On October 15, Claudia Farner became the first patient in Canada to undergo the Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy (LSG) procedure, a product of clinical trials jointly offered by AHS' Weight Wise and Centre for the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery (CAMIS) programs, and the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

While it is still too early to see the full results, Farner says her experience was a good one. "I was out of the hospital two days later and working fulltime again in seven days," says Farner, who underwent the procedure at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) in Edmonton.

"LSG is a fascinating new surgical innovation in the battle against the obesity epidemic and we are very excited to begin offering it to our patients in Alberta," says Dr. Arya Sharma, Medical Director of Weight Wise with AHS and Chair of Obesity Research at the University of Alberta. LSG is technically easier, and a faster procedure than other types of bariatric surgery and can be performed on larger patients who may be considered too highrisk for other types of bariatric surgery. The procedure involves removal of the left side of the stomach, resulting in the formation of a narrower stomach 'tube', about the size of a banana. The procedure does not require rerouting of intestines or implantation of an artificial device in the abdomen.

"My experience demonstrates that LSG is very effective," said Dr. Shazeer Karmali, bariatric surgeon at the RAH, and principal investigator of the study. "Internationally, short term data shows LSG's positive effect on metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by certain metabolic risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and excess cholesterol."

All patients being considered for bariatric surgery through Weight Wise's adult clinic will be matched with the surgical procedure that best fits their needs: LSG, RouxenY Gastric Bypass (RYGB) and Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB). RYGB reduces the size of the stomach and bypassing some of the small bowel. With LAGB, an inflatable cuff is placed around the upper part of the stomach so the patient feels full with smaller amounts of food.

"Bariatric procedures like LSG are an important tool in our fight against this epidemic," says Karmali. "But it's important to note that bariatric surgery is a last resort, once other means of weight loss and management have been exhausted."

Alberta Health Services is a provincialwide organization responsible for planning and delivering accessible and sustainable patientfocused health services to more than 3.5 million Albertans.

And here is a link to news about Ontario's funding increase for bariatric surgery:  http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/media/news_releases/arch ives/nr_09/feb/nr_20090223.html