Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Health trust ‘failing Billy’
Application for 12yr-old to get his life-saving meds ‘not considered’
AN application for Billy Caldwell’s life-saving treatment has not been considered because the Belfast Trust failed to pass vital information to experts, it has been claimed.
The panel, set up in response to the 12-year-old’s health crisis, was allegedly not furnished with details to enable them to process the paperwork.
A 30-day notice period by Health Canada is in place for exporting the anti-epilepsy meds and, again, time is running out to get Billy what he needs to keep his potentially fatal seizures at bay.
A spokesman for the youngster and his mum Charlotte said: “It’s not just that the application appears not to have been considered, but the evasiveness of the Trust when asked simple questions about the process is most troubling.
“The panel was announced 48 hours after Billy’s confiscated medicine was returned by order of the Home Secretary.
“There could hardly be a more highprofile case and yet crucial deadlines were missed despite written and faceto-face commitments being made by Belfast Trust.
“Lives – not just Billy’s – depend on the efficient working of this panel. This unwillingness to be open with parents about the deliberations does not augur well. Once more Charlotte and Billy are left dangling.
“This experience has only made Charlotte more determined to continue to campaign for all families and patients who urgently require access to cannabisbased medicines.”
Charlotte told the Mirror: “Belfast Trust failed to act on my son’s application. Billy was the Government’s catalyst for change. His health crisis triggered the creation of the expert panel. “Without Billy there’d probably be no panel and no current move to change the law and have medication imported by and prescribed on the NHS.
“But now applications are being brought for other children and my son has been left out in the cold.” A spokesman for Billy’s family said: “The Belfast Trust has now indicated it hopes to have the application considered on Monday at 2pm.”