Leg op parents were sent bill by mistake
AN APOLOGY has been made to the family of Anthony McMahon, after they his family were mistakenly sent a bill for a second opinion on how to treat to his leg.
The nine-year-old's parent have been trying to get the Health and Social Services Department to support an operation on his the child's left knee and hip.
The department paid for the same operation for the right leg six years ago, but a request for the left leg has now been refused, which led to a second opinion in Sheffield, for which the McMahon family were billed.
The Health and Social Services Department had originally said it could not discuss any matters relating to individual invoices. But yesterday, chief officer Dr Carol Tozer issued a statement, confirming that the department had approved funding for the visit to Sheffield Children's Hospital in April.
'The department arranged that Sheffield Children's Hospital would provide this opinion to the McMahon family and requested that the bill for this appointment be referred directly to HSSD for payment,' she said.
'There was no intention that the McMahon family be charged for an appointment which HSSD committed to fund in accordance with the agreed arrangements.
Unfortunately, due to an administration error on the part of Sheffield NHS Foundation Trust, this invoice was sent directly to the family and not to HSSD.'
