IT IS pretty much established now that smoking and being seriously overweight are both bad for your health. That message can never be repeated too often, however. So we fully support attempts by the health services and others to encourage people who smoke or who carry too much weight to change their lifestyle.

What we don’t agree with is denying smokers and those who are clinically overweight treatment that could improve the quality of their lives.

Yet that is exactly what is happening in the York area. The cash-strapped Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the body which controls the NHS purse strings in our area, last year introduced controversial restrictions on access to routine surgery for smokers and people classed as ‘obese’.

The move saved £2.7 million in 2017/18. But it has also meant that almost 2,500 patients in the York area have been forced to wait longer for routine surgery. A Freedom of Information request showed that more than 100 people a month in the region are being told they face delays of a year for routine surgery if they are obese, or six months if they smoke.

The policy has been condemned by Prof Neil Mortensen of the Royal College of Surgeons. It was cruel to keep patients who were suffering waiting for treatment that could help them, he said - and it could end up costing the NHS more in the long run.

The CCG claims patients who are obese or who smoke are more likely to suffer infection or other complications following surgery. But does anyone really believe it is consideration for patients’ welfare that has led the organisation to bring in these delays? Of course not. Prof Mortensen says the NHS should be doing more to help patients lose weight or give up smoking, rather than punishing them by delaying operations they need. We entirely agree.