HERTFORDSHIRE health chiefs have denied claims that they refuse joint replacements to severely overweight patients and smokers.

According to reports in several national newspapers, the two county primary care trusts (PCTs) are among nine in Britain with a specific policy that such patients should not have operations for arthritic knees or hips.

But director of public health Jane Halpin said: ""East and North Hertfordshire and West Hertfordshire PCTs do not have such a policy in place.

"We do have draft referral guidelines which include asking GPs to support overweight or obese patients in losing weight and motivating smokers to quit before referring them to routine joint replacement surgery.

"The main reason for this is to reduce the risks of anaesthetic or operative complications.

"It is not the case that if patients are unable or unwilling to lose weight or quit smoking that we deny them operations.

"The decision as to whether it is clinically safe to operate on patients who smoke or who are overweight is taken by the surgeon performing the procedure."

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