Some of Britain's leading clinics for the treatment of obesity have reportedly stopped taking new patients because they have run of cash.
Two centres in Leeds and Nottingham have closed their waiting lists while there is a five-year wait for operations in Portsmouth and a centre in Cambridge is not offering any surgery at all.
Doctors fear that the lack of funds will cost the NHS in the long-term because obese patients will develop conditions that will need costly treatment, according to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
A recent health committee select report criticised the NHS for not providing enough centres for treating obesity.
Nottingham is said to be only taking on obese patients suffering from diabetes or heart disease, while the number of operations in Portsmouth have been reduced to just eight a year.
The Government said the National Institute for Clinical Excellence is planning an overhaul of obesity services but it could take several years to be put into practice.
Melanie Johnson, the public health minister, told Today that the money for surgery was allocated at a local level by Primary Care Trusts rather than by Nice. "It is up to them to decide local priorities and decide what they buy," she said.