The number of people undergoing weight-loss surgery has surged 50 per cent in a year, new data from WA’s biggest private health insurer reveals.

HBF said there were 1154 cases of bariatric surgery between July and December last year, compared with 760 between July and December 2015.

The not-for-profit company said the cost of claims for bariatric surgery for obese members was almost $25 million in 2016-17. More than $14 million was spent in the past seven months.

Almost 80 per cent of cases dealt with by HBF were women and the surgery was most common among people aged 35-39 and 45-49.

There were 60 operations involving teenagers between 15 and 19 between July 2015 and last December.

In WA, most cases — 90 per cent — are handled through private health insurance.

A leading bariatric surgeon and the Australian Medical Association yesterday called on the public hospital system to take pressure off the private sector.

Dr Alan Thomas said the full extent of the wait list for publicly funded bariatric surgery was masked by limited access to specialists who carry out assessments.

Patients were being rejected from wait lists because of unnecessarily stringent guidelines in an attempt to keep numbers low.

He estimated there were at least 3500 bariatric surgeries performed in WA last year and many hundreds more, “if not thousands”, were wanting surgery but had either given up trying to get on public wait lists or were saving up to afford going through the private health system.

Surgery can cost $3500-$18,700 with private health insurance and $8000-$27,000 without cover.

The Health Department said 521 procedures relating to bariatric surgery were performed in WA public hospitals in the past financial year and the median wait list was 186 days.

But Dr Thomas said many of the public hospital procedures included dealing with complications rather than new cases.

He said the State Government’s reticence to address the health crisis was “phenomenal”.

“There’s still a strong culture of blame towards people with obesity but there’s a failure to recognise it as a disease, a metabolic condition,” he said.

AMA WA president Dr Omar Khorshid said many doctors were so frustrated with the lack of access to public bariatric surgery that they gave up trying to get patients on a wait list.

Dr Khorshid said older patients were known to dip into superannuation to cover private surgery because of the 55-year cut-off age for public surgery.

He said preventing co-morbidities associated with obesity by having more easily accessible surgery would “save the health system overall” and provide substantial economic benefits.

“It is short-sighted not to increase funding for bariatric surgery and the State Government should be embarrassed about the limited access to bariatric surgery for obese people in WA.

“The public sector needs to carry its share of the burden,” he said.

A WA Health spokesman said surgery was done at Joondalup Health Campus, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Bunbury Hospital by a team of seven surgeons.

“Access to bariatric surgery in WA is managed through an evidenced-based policy developed to promote patient safety and equity of access to the surgery,” he said.

Health Minister Roger Cook said the inaugural Preventive Health Summit next month would address reducing and preventing obesity.