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 | | Friday, 22 February, 2002, 16:50 GMT Family fumes over birthmark fees  The family is paying �2,000 a session for the treatment The parents of a toddler who is having laser treatment to remove a birthmark say they are paying thousands of pounds for care that would be free if they lived elsewhere in Britain. Two-year-old Luke White from Newark in Nottinghamshire is getting the specialist help in Liverpool. Luke's parents claim they are the victims of "postcode lottery" healthcare funding. They said consultants in Nottinghamshire will not give the go-ahead for laser treatment to remove a birthmark on Luke's head so they have to travel to Liverpool for the treatment. Plastic surgery The family is paying �2,000 for each session. The Whites believe that if they lived on Merseyside, Luke's care would be paid for through the NHS. His 32-year-old father Andy White, who is a rally car designer, said: "I thought it was a national health service, and I thought it didn't really matter where you lived in the country. "But it seems it is just a regional health service based on your region's funding and that disappoints me. "It rather goes against the things that you are told nationally.
However the local health authority, Newark and Sherwood Primary Care Trust, said that medical experts have advised that the treatment should be delayed until Luke is older. The marks were left after Luke was born with a condition called skin expansion, which left his face disfigured. His family was told they would have to wait five years for plastic surgery to deal with the disfigurement. Instead they opted to pay for the plastic surgery themselves. It has already cost them �17,000, but there is still laser treatment to be done to remove the remaining birthmarks on his ear. In a statement the trust said: "The issue is not about financial availability, but clinical effectiveness." The family has even considered moving to the north-west to continue Luke's treatment. | |    See also: Top England stories now:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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