Children in agony stuck on waiting lists for tooth extractions due to lack of hospital staff

Chrissie Wells-McCole with son Aaron

Children in desperate need of tooth extractions are stuck on excessive waiting lists for months on end due to an extreme shortage of staff at Fairfield Hospital.

Parents have expressed outrage as their children, some as young as five, are suffering from abscesses and severe pain due to being left so long without treatment - as waiting lists keep getting longer and existing staff come under more pressure.

Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the hospital, has apologised for the delays and has promised that a “recruitment drive” is underway to tackle the problem, but parents have hit out at the Trust for taking so long to act.

Five-year-old Aaron Wells-McCole from Littleborough is just one of the children being left to suffer after his first appointment for a tooth extraction was cancelled, leaving him with an abscess and more teeth which desperately need attention.

Despite being in constant pain, his mum Chrissie was told that he can have only a provisional appointment and not until September this year.

Chrissie said: “This can’t go on. He cries in bed every night, I can’t keep pumping him with pain killers while they mess around with dates for his treatment.

“My son is autistic so to get him to a dentist at all is an issue. He was listed as urgent about four months ago but how urgent is urgent if we are still waiting? I hate to see him suffer like this, as any parent would.

“They really need to pull their finger out and get more staff.”

Six-year-old Zoyah Ahmed has also been waiting months. Her dad Zaheer has been battling with hospital staff to get her seen, and still doesn’t have a set appointment.

Zaheer said: “This has been going on for months, we are still waiting for a letter from them so we can at least have a set date. She is really struggling, she has an abscess now and she’s been on all sorts of antibiotics. It’s not fair that I have to do all the chasing and in the end we get nowhere.”

He added: “They have to hire more staff and get their act together, this just shouldn’t happen.”

Zaheer Ahmed with daughter Zoyah

Both Zaheer and Chrissie contacted local MP Simon Danczuk for help, but say they have heard nothing back.

Professor Matt Makin, Medical Director at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are very sorry that some children are experiencing a delay in receiving a date for their operations. The reason for this is a shortage of trained children’s nurses, which is a national problem. This means the number of routine non-emergency children’s (up to 16-year-old) procedures we can carry out safely has been reduced and children are waiting longer than expected for their procedure.

“We are working closely with NHS England to rectify this situation and we are undertaking a recruitment drive, looking at working with other local hospitals and the possibility of introducing weekend lists to increase the number of theatre slots we have available for children.

“If there is a clinical urgency for a child’s procedure we will make sure their operation is carried out promptly.

“We would like to apologise sincerely for any anxiety these delays are causing and we will be in contact with patients soon to advise them when and where they will be treated.”

• Dentists are supplied by Pennine Care and are not provided through Pennine Acute Trust. The shortage is of trained children’s nurses which are needed to assist them.