Morbidly obese Northern Irish hospital patients are embarking on a potentially life changing journey to Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust has won a contract to perform weight-reducing operations on 80 patients from Northern Ireland, where the procedures are not available.
They will be carried out until mid-march and patients will be cared for in the Fulham Palace Road hospital's Imperial ward.
Ahmed R. Ahmed, a consultant surgeon in the team, believes the trust won the contract because of its surgical record.
He said: "We have a mortality rate of less than 0.3 per cent and a complication rate of less than two per cent."
Each patient received a consultation in Northern Ireland with Imperial staff on which operation - gastric bypass or gastric banding - they wish to undergo.
They will be in the hospital for up to two days. Gastric banding operations are less intrusive and can be conducted as day-surgery, while gastric bypasses require patients to stay overnight.
After their hospital stay, patients will be moved to a hotel for three days at the expense of the Irish health service, before being flown home.
Patients can expect up to 30 per cent weight loss after surgery.
The Imperial team will visit Northern Ireland at regular intervals to check up on the patients and to train the Northern Irish GPs in aftercare.
