NHS funds run out for ill tot's lung treatment

Phenomenal prevention team kept Angus out of hospital

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

A BRAVE tot is enduring long periods of iliness and hospital stays because a vital service has run out of funding.

Angus Evetts, three, used to have regular tests at a specialist respiratory clinic to detect lung infections before they started but he now has to fall ill in order to be treated.

This means instead of being given oral antibiotics to clear up the bug, he has to spend a fortnight at a time in hospital, getting the drugs intravenously because he is much sicker.

Mum Amy said: "We got a letter in December asking for feedback on the service because the funding was due to run out.

"We only knew it had stopped because we ended up in hospital and spoke to the consultants, who are all up in arms about it.

"Obviously, my concern is for my own child but there are 700 kids with a range of respiratory conditions this is affecting."

Angus has primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare genetic condition affecting just one in 20,000 people. It affects several organs and gets worse over time.

Until March, Angus attended ComBRRI (Complex Respiratory and Respiratory Infection) service, a specialist team at Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Children and Young People.