Tony before his bariatric surgery
Tony weighed 140kg and paid for his own bariatric surgery: “It was the best investment decision of my life”
Brisbane forklift driver and St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside patient Tony Salmon weighed 140kg and reached a critical point in his life which led him to self-fund gastric bypass surgery last year. He says it was the best investment he has ever made.
The 46-year old father-of-three from Caboolture South, near Brisbane, said he tossed and turned about dipping into his superannuation fund early, but figured he might not be around to retire if he didn’t act.
He assumed his health fund (with Bronze cover) would have covered him for bariatric surgery, but was told he would need to wait at least 12 months if he switched to Gold level, because his obesity was regarded as a pre-existing health condition.
“I was pretty devastated at the time to learn that it wasn’t covered … I assumed my weight issues would have been regarded as a fairly big health issue and that the health fund would allow me to have surgery as a solution,” he said.
At St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside, new self-funded surgery packages help patients to skip the queues and enjoy hassle-free healthcare on their own terms. The packages cover bariatric and orthopaedic surgery.
The self-funded option has a wide range of benefits – allowing patients to skip the public hospital queue, access affordable healthcare treatment with transparent upfront costs and receive private hospital care from an internationally-acclaimed private hospital providing patient-centred care to thousands of people every year. (Self-funded surgery packages are available at most St Vincent’s Private Hospitals in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.)
For patient Tony, his weight ballooned out to 140kg for a variety of reasons.
Tony after his bariatric surgery
Dr Robert Finch, Bariatric Surgeon at St Vincent's Private Northside
“Dr Finch suggested gastric bypass surgery as the best option. I just made my mind up I didn’t want to continue down this path then have heart issues or a stroke in five or six years. It was as simple as that.”
He said he didn’t have regrets about accessing his super. Tony had surgery with bariatric surgeon Dr Finch in October 2024. Post surgery he’s now around 100kg and hopes he could lose around another 10kg.
“It seemed a lot simpler to pay (for the surgery) myself, you’re paying a lot of money for private health, a lot of the times to be honest. I don’t understand why I’m paying so much and there’s minimal extras you can use,” says Tony.
“Some people say that having bariatric surgery is ‘cheating’ or that I did it the ‘easy way’ but I can tell you there’s nothing easy about having major bariatric surgery and you have to completely change your mindset and your diet after the surgery and stay disciplined or you won’t get the benefits.”
St Vincent’s Health Australia Chief Medical Officer, Associate Professor Michael Franco
St Vincent’s Health Australia Chief Medical Officer, Associate Professor Michael Franco, says he’s noticed an uptick within the group’s 10 private hospitals of patients choosing the “third option” of paying for surgery themselves because they didn’t have the top cover of private health insurance.
He expects this to grow further after the latest 3.7 per cent price hike – the largest increase since 2018 – that came into effect on April 1.
“We’ve seen a trend in Australia of uptake of this third option of people saying ‘I don’t have private health insurance but I’ve got the ability to pay for a procedure I might need and I don’t necessarily want to stay on the public waiting list’,” Associate Professor Franco said.
“There are risks with not having private health insurance, that’s why we’ve narrowed what we’re saying is the third option to common things that are not super urgent that we can have a pretty high confidence on what the cost will be.”
