NHS chiefs say they have ended the "postcode lottery" that has stopped Gloucestershire patients getting care that others are given for free elsewhere.
Under a new code, local health trusts are no longer able to refuse to fund specialist care.
This includes costly cancer drugs and complex children's operations.
This could mean youngsters in the county getting NHS-funded operations to help them walk – instead of having to pay privately. But their parents are still cynical about what the changes might mean because national NHS chiefs will have the final say.
NHS Gloucestershire has never funded the £23,000 selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) surgery, despite other trusts in the country paying for it.
The procedure gives children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy a chance to walk and live a more independent life.
At least six children in the county who need or have needed the surgery have been forced to raise thousands of pounds for private operations.
They are Skye Swinton, of Up Hatherley, Daniel Morgan, of Leckhampton, Annabelle Harrison-Rowles, of Coombe Hill, Lewis Munday of Tetbury, Joseph Skidmore of Longlevens, and Jai Dwight, from Arlingham.
Previously, a patient in Manchester could be given a particular operation on the NHS while someone in Liverpool could be refused the same surgery. This was because funding decisions were made by individual local trusts – a situation dubbed the 'postcode lottery'.
Now, when a doctor in Gloucestershire recommends a patient for an operation, NHS England will decide whether they get it based on a single, clear set of criteria.
An NHS spokesman said the change was "effectively the end of the postcode lottery".
He added: "We're also developing a new approach for widening access to some services that are not routinely commissioned by the NHS, such as selective dorsal rhizotomy."
Ruth Swinton, 38, who has raised £35,000 so her three-year-old daughter Skye can have SDR at Bristol Frenchay Hospital, said: "By the time it's ready to roll out, we will hopefully be further down our journey and it will no longer affect us, but it's a positive step that they are beginning to look at reducing the postcode lottery."
Daniel Morgan's parents had to raise £80,000 to take him to Missouri. His mum Helen, from Leckhampton, said: "This looks like a very tiny step in the right direction."
Ayllah-Beau Foley, 18, from Cheltenham, spent a year eating through a tube while her parents fought to get her an operation to cure her rare stomach condition.
NHS Gloucestershire had refused to let her have the £35,000 surgery, but after thousands campaigned, they changed their minds.
Her mum Christine said: "Hopefully people will never have to use the system, but if it is done on a national level hopefully it will have clearer guidelines for everyone."
"However, I still believe a specialist doctor or consultant should be the one to decide if someone gets an operation or not."
