A leading consultant cardiologist, based at the Erne Hospital, has said smokers should be refused expensive medical treatment until they give up the habit.
Dr Mahendra Varma, also explained how one patient he treated wrote a letter of complaint about him, claiming he had infringed her human rights, after he told her she was overweight and needed to quit smoking.
Dr Varma explained how the rates of heart disease are particularly high in Northern Ireland, and he reiterated the message that people need to stop smoking, and adopt a healthier lifestyle and diet. He also stressed the importance of screening programmes, such as 'The Fermanagh Heart Bus Project' where people can drop in and have their blood-pressure, cholesterol, and family history checked. Anyone then found to be at high risk can be referred for treatment.
He explained: "The message needs to get through at school level and, unfortunately, there is not a high emphasis in the curriculum on dietary habits, lifestyle education and exercise or activities. If we start at the school level, we can teach children to eat properly and that work will then filter through into society as they get older."
He also noted that women were still smoking much more than men and that this trend is on the increase.
And, Dr Varma suggested there is an element of what he calls, 'the over-politically correct dual rights of the individual', quoting a personal example: "I have received a written complaint against me from a patient after I told her she was over weight and was smoking too heavily, she wrote a letter saying I was violating her human rights.
"So, it is extremely critical to get this across to patients even though they have had intervention like angioplast or by-pass surgery, and still they continue to smoke."
Dr Varma said the image of a patient standing smoking outside the front door of a hospital with a drip, was 'appaling'.
"I feel this type of behaviour should be banned. I take a very strong view, one that is not very politically correct, that people who do smoke should not have any treatment that requires an expensive amount of money being spent, particularly like by-pass surgery, until they really stop smoking."
