"My son's ENT consultation"

My son has chronic tonsillitis and one occasion it even warranted a trip to the children's unit for treatment. On a regular basis his tonsils swell up so much that they even touch is uvula. In fact he is experiencing this right now.

After repeated visits to the GP they decided to refer him to NHS Forth Valley ENT. We attended an appointment with Consultant A who asked us to undertake a sleep study, which we did. The study came back okay. We attended a second appointment with Consultant A who, on examination, decided that my son should have is tonsils and adenoids removed and have gromits placed for glue ear. He was placed on a waiting list as an urgent case. We waited. The COVID-19 pandemic hit and all procedures were cancelled. We waited more. Eventually we were told he had a date for his operation. We attended the hospital a couple more times for pre-op and for him to have a COVID-19 test.

Eventually, hours before we were due to attend the hospital for the operation we were informed that Consultant B (who had never met my son before) had cancelled the operation. Why, we asked, they weren't entirely sure - it turned out that it was because they do not generally operate on kids under three. How was this not caught by the myriad of people we spoke to? Every time we attended we were asked his DoB. And why did Consultant B think they could over-rule the decision Consultant A had made?

We waited some more. Eventually we were asked to come and see Consultant B to discuss my son's situation. We arrived. Consultant B appeared not to have read anything about my son. They didn't even know that a sleep study had been done. They appeared quite dismissive of Consultant A and informed us it had been "wrong" to schedule the procedure let alone as an urgent case. Consultant B believed the risks outweighed the benefits. I asked if they were aware how much pain this caused my son and would continue to do if nothing was done and was told "this is how I want to manage this". Consultant B told us they wanted to schedule a hearing test and that was the last we heard. Nothing has been done since.