The North East | Archive | 2006 | April | 8
From the archive, first published Saturday 8th Apr 2006.
A YOUNG mother whose one-year- old daughter has a skull deformity has criticised a decision by health bosses not to pay for a protective helmet that shapes her head as she grows.
Shortly after Toni Ridley was born, she was diagnosed by doctors at Durham's University Hospital as having plagiocephaly, also known as flat head syndrome.
Toni's mother, Helen Metcalf, 21, from Esh Winning, near Durham, was relieved when her primary care trust agreed to pay for the £2,000 helmet.
Miss Metcalf said: "I got her first helmet funded on the NHS because her condition was so severe. We have been going down regularly to the clinic in Leeds where they fit them."
But Toni is growing out of it and her local primary care trust has declined to fund a replacement helmet.
Miss Metcalf, who backs the national support group Plagio UK, is disappointed at the decision.
Health bosses said the decision was based on advice from experts, but Plagio UK believes the helmets help people with the condition and called for the NHS to fund them where needed.
The helmets protect the head and guide the growth of a baby's skull.
Yesterday, a petition bearing more than 7,000 names was handed in to Downing Street calling for more awareness of the condition.
Miss Metcalf said: "It seems awful to me. You can get boob jobs on the NHS, but you cannot get your kids sorted."
She has met senior officials from the Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust (PCT) and intends to try to get a second opinion from doctors.
Trust chief executive Andrew Young said: "The orthotics service provided by Durham and Chester-le-Street PCT, for patients across the north of Durham, no longer funds helmets for the treatment of plagiocephaly as this is not currently recommended by the four designated national centres for craniofacial surgery."
© Newsquest Media Group 2008