Ever wonder why the NHS is haemorrhaging cash? Of course you don't, its pretty fucking obvious.  My job requires me to read though operation notes, inpatient stays, and day-case records. I am NOT allowed to use my common sense to assign a code for obesity unless it is stated by a clinician, even if I am able to see from XRs/CTs/MRIs. So what can I do, but subtlety shitlord by searching ALL the documentation that might have a BMI scrawled on it. Hell, I almost enjoy assigning it. It seems that some junior doctors are afraid of the 'O word', and yet I feel hope when others are happy to use it, and am assume they hate the fatties too. The number of people who would rather have surgery than lose weight is astronomical. Considering that the average population age is fairly high in my area of the world, I would estimate that 70% of all gallbladder op patients are obese. If you are in your 20s with gallstones and cholecystitis you are in fucking awful shape.  However the age at which gallstones may give symptoms has changed a lot in recent years, and doctors see gallstones in much younger women, sometimes even teenagers, although it is certainly true to say they become commoner as we get older. They do seem to be getting rather more common generally, possibly as a result in changes in our diet over the last two generations.> http://www.bsg.org.uk/patients/general/gallstones.html What gets me is that some Drs don't list obesity as a co-morbidity, making me work harder to make sure the statistics of porkers in the area is accurate. I've also started to gently remind my fitter co-workers to assign obesity wherever it is documented.  This is not to mention all the cardiac patients having stents put in. And guess what, most re-attend, because they don't change their lifestyle at all.