Editor's comment: Refusing to pay for surgery is scandalous
JACK Rooke is the latest in a series of children who we have featured needing an operation to allow them to walk unaided. That surgery can be carried out in a National Health Hospital, by NHS staff. And yet in each case the friends and family of the children involved have had to raise at least £31,000 to pay for it.
Why? Because the local NHS trusts do not consider the operations important enough. But it in every case the surgery has or will transform the children's lives. Yet the NHS refuse to fund the surgery. And they get away with it because in each case parents, relatives and friends of the children affected have raised the money themselves to pay for the operation.
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Jack Rooke and his parents
The absurdity of the NHS's position here is that if they carried out the operation they would save money in the long term. Without it Jack would increasingly need bigger and more sophisticated equipment to get him around.
Or could it be that their decision is an entirely cynical one based on the premise that if they refuse to help then families will come up with the money themselves?
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And even if the decisions are made nationally from April rather than locally what prospects are there for any real change? It could simply be a different group of people turning down requests for help.
Comments
by Big_Gregory
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 3:18PM
“Very easy for the lefties to blindly tap away at the red arrows re comments from winford & welliedog2 - when you see the numbers who have arrived in this country over the past ten years and then review the percentage who do not make any tax contribution it is just basic maths that says NHS resources are going to be stretched. There is nothing racist is coming to this quite basic conclusion.
I do feel sorry for the NHS/PCT's who are constantly having to juggle resources and make tough decisions. However, it makes me so angry when I hear stories of a 70 year old earlier in the year having gender reassignment surgery and poor kids like Jack being left untreated.
I hope he gets the surgery him and his parents deserve soon.”
by Lone_Ranger
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 12:57PM
“So I get "red arrowed" for daring to tell the truth rather going along with the warped Daily Mail version of things.”
by ToryToMyGrave
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 12:55PM
“I'm still baffled as to how some women can get their **** done on the NHS whilst this poor lot have to raise the cash themselves.
Baffling.”
by robynj88
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 12:17PM
“Will the Post stop this NHS bashing?! It's not the Hospitals who decide how the money is spent - its the PCT. When you weigh up the odds of the number of people needing this operation compared to those needing other important but more common operations what are you going to go with? To suggest the NHS will not bother because it knows families will raise the money themselves is preposterous.”
by Lone_Ranger
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 12:08PM
“welliedog - No, you wouldn't. Just because the Daily Mail says you would doesn't make it true.”
by welliedog2
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 11:52AM
“No doubt if you happened to be Somalian and over in the UK for a week 'visiting relatives' you would get the operation for free.”
by winford
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 11:03AM
“and yet the government still continue to keeps the likes of known terrorists and their familes living in big houses and claiming benefits - none of which they have paid into the NHS for. When will the government stop spending tax payers money on illegal immigrants and begin to spend on the people who are entitled to it.”
by PaulS81
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 9:59AM
“There needs to be a proper discussion on what the NHS should and should not do. With the advances in health care over the decades more and more procedures are possible but we need to prioritise which ones they do because we can't afford to do them all.”