A patient advocacy group has complained to the Medical Council about weight-loss specialist Dr Eva Orsmond’s treatment of an overweight contestant on Operation Transformation.
The Irish Patients’ Association (IPA) said it has referred the section of last week’s programme in which Dr Orsmond berates a 23-year-old woman to the Medical Council “for their consideration”.
In the show Dr Orsmond is seen to criticise Charlotte O’Connell after she failed to meet her weight-loss target by half a pound. She told Ms O’Connell to “cop on” and to stop crying.
IPA chairman Stephen McMahon said Operation Transformation had had a very positive effect on people’s efforts to turn around their lifestyle and eating habits. However, the most fundamental need of patients was to be treated with dignity.
He said the incident could not be explained away as entertainment when viewers perceived Dr Orsmond’s relationship to the participant as a clinical one. “As a patient advocacy group we are concerned about the messages that this public event may send to the doctor’s peers, and to viewers that may have personalised the comments and are beyond reach,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Dr Osmond referred questions to RTÉ’s press office. It said that, while her reaction “may have been forceful”, it was “an important marker in Charlotte’s journey”.
Dr Orsmond told the Saturday Night Show on RTÉ at the weekend she planned to apologise to Ms O’Connell. Asked if she regretted the way she had spoke to Ms O’Connell, she said: “I do. I think it was too harsh.”
