We’ve slashed the number of children waiting to have their tonsils removed by a quarter, after our ENT team (Ear, Nose and Throat) held a high volume week in July – TonKIDZ.

During just one week, 100 operations were carried out – including 20 in a day over the weekend. Previously, there were around 400 on our waiting list for this procedure, aimed at children who suffer recurring episodes of tonsilitis or have sleep apnoea, some who had been waiting up to a year.

Gaurav Kumar, ENT Clinical Lead (pictured above left with the team on Tropical Bay ward), said: “Teamwork was absolutely key in being able to achieve this. Our nurses and admissions staff, surgical teams and paediatric colleagues, who kept the day ward open later so we could have recovery beds for children after the procedure, were all key. Everyone had to be on board.

“We had two teams working, one operating on a patient while the other was getting the next child ready. We had back-up patients lined up in case there were any cancellations so no theatre time was lost, and there was lots of support from parents, especially as they had been waiting so long.”

ENT surgery makes up the bulk of our paediatric waiting list, so reducing the number of children waiting to have their tonsils out by such a number will make a difference.

The team plan to hold additional high volume weeks after the summer holidays to further reduce the remaining waiting list of 300 children.

We first started holding high volume or ‘super weeks’ during the pandemic, to reduce the backlog which built up while we dealt with Covid-19. Read more about our work to reduce our waiting lists.