Post by Focus on Jun 28, 2013 18:51:39 GMT
They are two cases which have been slammed as a damning indictment of the twisted priorities of the NHS.
A toddler has been refused a crucial operation which could help him walk because it is not deemed worthy of funding by NHS bureaucrats.
But just a few miles from where little Oliver Dockerty, two, could be given the gift of mobility, an NHS hospital performed a breast enlargement operation for an aspiring glamour model because it was considered necessary for health reasons.
Priorities : Little Oliver Dockerty, top, was refused funding for an operation which could help him walk while aspiring model Josie Cunning, above, had her breasts enlarged to 36DD at a cost of £4,800 to taxpayers
The stark contrast between the way Josie Cunningham and Oliver Dockerty, who has cerebral palsy, have been treated caused outrage today.
The NHS was accused of having a 'skewed sense of priorities'.
Claire Dockerty, the toddler's mother, criticised the NHS for turning him down for a life-changing operation.
The 30-year-old has now launched a desperate fundraising drive to try to collect £25,000 required to pay for her son's operation privately and walk without a frame.
Claire said: 'I’m a single parent and I don’t have that kind of money.
'I’d love to see him walking unaided for his first day at primary school.
'Even if they look again at the decision, there’s going to be a big backlog of children like Oliver waiting to have this done.'
Turned down : Oliver, who has cerebral palsy, with mother Claire, needs a metal frame to walk
Oliver, two, was referred for surgery in Leeds General Infirmary - a regional centre specialising in the complicated procedure - to help him walk independently.
But when a surgeon applied to NHS England for funding for the selective dorsal rhizotomy procedure, he was turned down.
Claire, from Stalybridge, Manchester, added: 'Oliver has splints on his legs, a flexi-stand as he hasn’t got any balance, and uses a walking frame to get around and crawls around a lot.
'He wants to be jumping in muddy puddles, like Peppa Pig, he wants to be kicking a football and he can’t jump on a trampoline.
Until recently, the operation had only been available to a handful of NHS patients at a Bristol hospital.
Parents turned down for their child’s procedure, which involves cutting nerves in the back, had to raise as much as £50,000 to travel to America.
But a Leeds General Infirmary has now started to offer it to NHS and private patients.
Outrage : Claire Dockerty, whose son Oliver, two, needs a specialist operation in order to walk without a frame, slammed the NHS for refusing to pay for the operation
But the case is in stalk contrast to that of Miss Cunningham - the aspiring glamour model had her breasts enlarged to size 36DD on the NHS.
The surgery to 22-year-old cost taxpayers £4,800.
She convinced doctors, at St James’s Hospital in Leeds - a few miles from where specialists could help the two-year-old walk again - to operate by claiming her flat chest was ‘ruining her life’ and causing emotional distress.
But critics were appalled at the decision, branding it a waste of taxpayers’ cash.
Under NHS guidelines, cosmetic surgery should be funded only in rare circumstances ‘to protect a person’s health’.
Miss Cunningham, who works in telesales, says her new breasts have given her the ‘confidence’ she needs to pursue her dream of topless modelling.
She hopes to emulate former Page 3 girl Katie Price.
The unmarried mother, from Leeds, plans to leave her children Harley, five, and Frankie, two, with her parents while she chases her dream.
Her operation was recommended by her GP before being approved by her local Primary Care Trust.
But when approached by journalists, health bosses were unable to say why such an enormous cleavage was necessary for Miss Cunningham’s wellbeing.
Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers expect scarce NHS resources to be used to help people with serious medical needs.
'People will therefore be stupefied that the same system which funded a boob job for an aspiring glamour model will not allow treatment that would enable a little boy to walk unaided.
'It certainly suggests that the NHS has a skewed sense of priorities.'
A spokesperson for NHS England, said: 'NHS England's current commissioning policy means that this procedure is not currently being routinely funded for patients in England.
'Individual funding requests will continue to be considered where there are believed to be exceptional clinical grounds in an individual case.
'However, given the potential role of this treatment option, it has been proposed that the procedure may be offered later in the current financial year.
We aim to keep all patients affected by this change informed.
'It would be inappropriate to comment on an individual patient.'
Meanwhile, Claire is determined to fund the operation for her son herself and has launched her own charity page at justgiving.com/oliverwantstojoinin
COSMETIC SURGERY FUNDING : HOW THE NHS DECIDES
Cosmetic procedures are not normally done on the NHS unless doctors decide there is a clinical need.
This decision is taken at a local level, by local clinical commissioners under the new NHS reform, on the basis of reports submitted by a patient's doctors.
Commissioners set their own criteria according to what, in their view, are the health needs of the local community.
For cosmetic surgery, the usual protocol is that the commissioners must decide there is some kind of clinical, ie health, need for the operation to be funded on the NHS.
Simply wanting to look nicer in itself is not reason enough.
Leeds Primary Care Trust, also known as NHS Leeds, offers a list of cosmetic procedures that may be available on its website.
They include breast augmentation, breast reduction, eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), and rhytidectomy (wrinkle removal including face lift).
It says these may be available 'providing certain criteria can be met', and lists the criteria.
The criteria required for breast augmentation include suffering from certain rare syndromes, severe asymmetry (more than two cup sizes difference), or lumpectomy that results in deformity.
Rare cases, however, such as Ms Cunningham's, have to be go through the Individual Funding Request process, in which each case is decided upon its individual merits.
How the hell can any sane, caring person put a pair of overblown boobs before allowing a little boy to walk properly?? - Sheer madness!! - Fx
