Wait time for surgery following ENT consultation

[sktwothree]

I was hoping someone may be able to give me an idea of the time between ENT consultation and surgery on the NHS. We are in the South of England, but any experiences would be helpful.

My daughter is 3 and suffers with extreme dribbling, recurrent ear infections (8 in 2023 and 1 already this year) and suspected sleep apnea. We have also been advised she has extremely large tonsils and adenoids.

We have been referred to ENT, however our GP advised that due to the wait for a consultation our best bet may be to seek a private consultation and then any treatment be referred back on to the NHS. My only concern with this is if the wait time for any surgery required is still extremely long, would we be better off somehow finding the money to do the surgery privately?

If anyone has any experience of this themselves it would be so greatly appreciated! Thank you x

Hey, did you get any answers yet? my little one is 2.5 and is drooling so much I called by the preschool to ask if we had seeked medical advice! I had mentioned it to hv who gave us some exercises. But feel awful to have had that call from the school, the manner it came across in wasnt the best 😔

One of my almost 5 year old twins had adenotonsilectomy in April after more than a year on the waiting list. We had initially been referred in spring 2022 because of snoring and suspected sleep apnoea alongside asymetric enlarged tonsils that almost touched. From referrral to initial appointment was around 5 months followed by allergy testing (skin prick tests) and then medication for 3 months with no benefit observed so stopped as didn’t want him on steroids long term. When put in waiting list for surgery we were told it was around 6 months wait for surgery; when I enquired 7 months later to find out where he was on the list and how much longer the wait may be, I was told he was 115th and it would be at least 12 months.

We got a call on a Wednesday lunchtime asking if we would be available for surgery the following Monday as someone had cancelled and I had said we’d take cancellation appointments if any came up!. He had been on the waiting list for around 13 months when he had surgery. He no longer snores and we believe the apnoea has been largely resolved!