We recently reported on the length of waiting lists for some types of treatment at Noble’s Hospital.

While the figures are stark they don’t reveal the reality of how they affect people’s lives. Here, reporter Julie Blackburn tells the story of just one person among the many on the waiting lists...

Yesterday morning, Matthew Melly, aged eight, woke up with swollen glands. The previous night he had developed a high temperature.

For Matthew this was nothing new.

Last week he had been off school with yet another bout of tonsillitis. Having completed what his mum, Sigrun Jonsdottir, says was the 10th course of antibiotics he has been prescribed since January, it was hoped that he would be well enough to return to school.

But another high temperature means that he will probably have to take another week off and maybe have more antibiotics. He has already missed 12 weeks of school.

You might have expected a young child to be a priority on the waiting list for a tonsillectomy but you would be wrong.

Sigrun has been told that Matthew will have to wait 16 months before he can have the operation.

She said: ’It started in September last year. There used to be about three months in between [bouts] and then they were just coming every month, or twice a month this month has been.

’Every time he gets it, he gets such a high temperature for a whole week. He’s up at night-time hallunicating because he has such a high temperature. His throat also gets very white and full of pus and I think it might be closing over and affecting his breathing.

’He’s actually lost half a stone since February last year because he can’t eat when he’s got it.

’Every time he has to have antibiotics - he’s had 15 courses now. This one is the 15th and he takes them four times a day. And when he’s off for seven days he has to take Calpol or Nurofen every four hours [to bring his temperature down] so you go through seven or eight bottles a week. It’s just not good for him.

’So I went to the doctor and I was told that once he had had it six times they take them out, and then he just kept having them.

’Three months ago the doctor referred him to ENT and three months later I rang them and they said there was a 16-month waiting list.’

Matthew’s frequent bouts of illness are also affecting Sigrun’s ability to work and support them both.

Sigrum, a single mother, used to be a health care assistant at the hospital but is now working part time as a cleaner in a private house and she often has to take time off work if Matthew is too sick to go with her, and her daughter, Katrin, or her neighbours can’t look after him.

When she questioned the length of time Matthew would have to wait before getting his operation she was told that if she wrote a letter and put in it everything about her work and about Matthew missing school, he might get it done sooner.

She said: ’So I did that and I got a letter from the school. We sent that referral again and I haven’t heard anything. They’re just not responding at all.’

She added: ’In Iceland, where I come from, when you’re sick you have your tonsills out and that’s it - it’s like routine for a six-year-old.’

She said despairingly: ’It’s just ongoing, he’s missing out on so much at school.

’If I was to pay for private I am sure it could be done within the month but as a single mum I have not got the money to do so.

’I want to get this public as I am sure there are a lot of people in the same situation as me and also for my son so he doesn’t have to go through this again and again.’

Health Minister David Ashford set out the department’s policy on tonsillectomy which states the procedure will only be funded where the following criteria are met:

·Seven or more well documented clinically significant and appropriately treated sore throats in the preceding year;

·Five or more such episodes in each of the previous two years; OR

·Three or more such episodes in each of the preceding three years.

He said: ’In terms of the waiting list, if an adult patient is listed for routine tonsillectomy, they would receive their operation in eight months from now. If it is a child listed, the wait would be one month.’

Mr Ashford said he had looked into Matthew’s case and told us: ’I can confirm that Matthew does not meet the current criteria at this time for a tonsillectomy.

’However, we are looking to see if we can have him reassessed.’

â?¢ Since we spoke to Mr Ashford, Sigrun has received an apology from the ENT department, which now says that Matthew’s referral had been listed as a routine check up so was not followed up properly. Matthew has now been promised a consultation next week.