A record breaking national swimmer from Salford has had an application to Salford CCG for acupuncture rejected.
Ethan Evans, 14, who swims for City of Salford Swimming Club suffers from Hemiplegic Migraines – a rare condition involving temporary weakness on one side of the body.
The patient starts off with a severe migraine which radiates through to the rest of the body causing one-sided weakness, slurred speech and eyesight problems. The effects can last hours or days depending on the severity of the attack. Since the application was rejected Ethan has had to ‘take a step back’ from swimming until the HM attacks have been bought under control.
In May 2015 Ethan was struck down with HM and he spent five weeks in hospital undergoing a barrage of tests.
Read Migraine-hit teen fundraiser Ethan Evans bags Salford Citizen’s Award
He was placed on beta blockers along with other medication and over the coming months his condition did not get any better and the side effects were horrendous.
Ethan’s grandad Ed Green, started to do his own research and found out that acupuncture and spinal massage was a good thing to try. He was recommended the Clarendon Clinic in Swinton as past patients had explained that similar conditions to Ethan had had success with this kind of treatment.
Ed approached Ethan’s GP who was more than happy to support the application hoping it would help him come off the medication.
The cost of the treatment was just under £680 and this would have funded 20 sessions for Ethan.
Ethan’s family first submitted an application last year and upon appeal Salford CCG requested additional information in December. This was submitted by the family but Salford CCG asked for yet more information at the beginning of January, after this was submitted by the family and the appeal went to the panel for the second time on 28 January 2016. In February the family received another letter requesting yet more information.
Gathering all the information they have most recently asked for would take up to eight weeks according to the family.
The application has been rejected by SCCG with no explanation as to why. They offered the family an ‘informal meeting’ but said that they could not discuss the decision, the application or the reason it was rejected, meaning the meeting would be ‘completely and utterly pointless.’
Ed said, “It’s a complete waste of time going to a meeting where you can’t even the discuss the reason for why the meeting is being held in the first place. It’s just delaying tactics by them.”
A spokesperson from NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group said, “We are unable to comment on any individual cases. However, Salford CCG does commission a wide number of services, and when any applications come in for anything outside of these, we are required to build up enough evidence about both the patient in question and whether the treatment being requested will indeed prove beneficial to them before any decision can be made – we need to consider whether it is safe, whether it works for some patients and whether it will work for this patient; as well as the cost.”
“We do this through liaison with the person’s GP’s and other doctors. The issues can be complex and the panel of clinicians that considers them need to have sufficient information before making a decision and it can therefore take some time to build up enough evidence on which decisions can then be made.”
“We have been in regular contact with Ethan’s family, and have offered and would welcome the opportunity to meet with them to provide an update with any developments and next steps. We would encourage this in order to be able to explain to them that any decisions that will be made are fair to the individual in question, as well as to the wider community in Salford of which we serve and that any decisions are evidence based and are proven to be an effective use of resources.”
SalfordOnline.com asked Salford CCG how many applications had been lodged between 2014/15 for alternative treatments and medicine. Salford CCG responded by saying they had received two other applications other than Ethan’s and that only one had been approved.
Ethan’s grandad responded, “Shame on you Salford CCG for allowing a 14-year-old boy to suffer for this long, when the treatment could have been started last year and finished by now.”
Ethan’s family eventually funded the treatment out of their own pocket and so far he has had three sessions which have already helped.
