A NORTH-EAST hospital trust has appointed its first specialist weight-loss surgeon as plans to provide hundreds more operations on the NHS gather pace.

Akeil Samier, a dedicated bariatric surgeon who has worked in Holland and the UK, has joined the staff at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

The Iraqi surgeon, who recently worked at one of the UK’s two centres of excellence for weight-loss surgery, said he was looking forward to helping clinically obese patients who had tried and failed to lose weight, adding: “It is amazing. With this surgery you save life and improve the quality of life.”

But he stressed that it was not a magical solution and would involve a lot of commitment on the part of patients to change their lifestyles after surgery.

Thousands of pounds have been spent on strengthened hospital furniture – from wheelchairs and commodes to beds, seats and operating theatres – to prepare Darlington Memorial Hospital to become a specialist centre for bariatric surgery.

Andrew Gilliam, a gastrointestinal surgeon who has recently trained as a bariatric surgeon, is setting up the service at the trust.

The service is expected to carry out its first operations at Darlington Memorial Hospital before Christmas.

Bariatric surgery is also due to begin at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, and the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton. The three centres are expecting to perform up to 300 operations a year, in addition to operations carried out at Sunderland Royal Hospital.

Mr Gilliam said: “We are meeting GPs in the next few weeks and holding a seminar for six patients who we have identified as being potentially suitable for surgery.”

The surgeons will be part of a multi-disciplinary team, including specialist dietitians, nurses and psychologists, to support patients before and after surgery.

Mr Gilliam said all the evidence showed bariatric surgery represented excellent value for money for the NHS, dramatically reducing the medical costs of treating patients with weight-related diseases and allowing obese patients to get back to work and normal life.

Mr Samier said there were an estimated one million obese people living in the UK, but the NHS only performed around 15,000 weight loss operations a year.