Recommend paediatric ENTS South West UK

[FruitPoppet]

I'm looking for recommendations for child ENT consultant and surgeon in the south west, that will potentially perform and adenoids removal on an under 2. Around Plymouth, but willing to travel Devon and Cornwall.

Many thanks.

pretty sure it would need to be a tertiary paediatric centre & there would be a lower weight limit (usually around 15kg iirc) due to the implications of blood loss. In 18 yrs anaesthetising I've never seen Ts/As in a child under 2. Any paed ENT surgeon should be able to examine & explain the risks vs benefits though so maybe start with wherever your GPs usual referral centre is.

Private? You need to talk to your gp who will be aware of private options in your region but I’m not aware of any myself. If it’s medically necessary the nhs will arrange it but you don’t get to choose the surgeon

I would think you’d need a referral to Bristol Chlidrens. As a PP said. Some DGH’s won’t operate on children that young. We have toddlers have their Tonsils and adenoids out but it’s uncommon in under 2.

Agree I think you would need to attend Bristol children’s. I’ve worked in a large children’s hospital and we didn’t operate on under 2s for tonsils. You would need a paediatric anaesthetist too.

Mike Saunders at Bristol Children’s is fantastic. I think he does private as well as NHS.

Agree that no reputable DGH or private hospital would operate on a child that young. I have known a couple of kids that age have it done, but that was at the tertiary centre.

Thanks all. I know it's uncommon but I have spoken to others who have had the operation done on an under 2 in other parts of the UK, I just can't consider travel on top of private costs.

Baby barely sleep because of apnea and she ticks all boxes for adenoids issues- dad had his out age 2 due to struggles also.

We're on the NHS wait list for an ENT appointment, but have been since September 2025 and have been advised not to hold my breath for any kind of treatment. But she's suffering and so am I. No amounts of saline spray, cold humidifiers or piriton is getting us any more sleep .

So you don’t know it’s tonsils and adenoids rather than other airway issues?

We can't be certain, but we heavily suspect it's adenoids and not necessarily tonsils. We've been seen my plenty of gps who all think the same thing. But without being seen by an ENT we can't be certain, but it's proving difficult to be seen by an NHS. Hence why I'm looking private. And it's not worth my time or money to pay for a private ENT that won't consider treatment, if it's the best option for her. Obviously no one is going to do it if it's unsafe, but I have spoken to people who have had it done with success..

Trouble is you can’t see the adenoids. They feel if they’re large and take them out if needed, and obviously that still needs to happen under GA.

Without double checking, I am pretty certain that he operated on my daughter at Spire Bristol 16 years ago when she had just turned 2. We did plan to go to a closer hospital, but the original surgeon concluded that we should be somewhere with intensive care beds.

We were very fortunate to have a GP who had done ENT for a while before switching to be a GP and knew what my daughter needed to have done. The local hospital paeds were scratching their heads for quite a few weeks (we’d had an emergency referral from an NHS drop in centre - back in the days when it was possible to get to see a GP even if the regular one couldn’t see you).

I seem to remember they preferred DD to be 2+ before they operated.

Good luck, OP.

@Waitingformychinesetakeawaymy hospital does do it under two. But I can count on one hand the number of children that age who’ve had it done.