Telford boy's painful three-year wait for surgery as waiting lists rise across county
A Shropshire mother says her 15-year-old son has been waiting three years for mouth surgery at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital as figures show waiting lists are rising across the county.
Figures released last week show that tens of thousands of patients were waiting for routine treatment at hospitals across Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.
NHS England figures show 36,043 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) at the end of April – up from 35,841 in March, and 33,855 in April 2022.
Of those currently on the waiting list, 2,592 (seven per cent) have been waiting for longer than a year.
Among them is a child of a Telford woman who says her son has been on the waiting list for more than three years at SaTH.
The mother, who has asked not to be identified, said her son was referred to the trust in January 2020 for oral surgery after a problem with the roof of his mouth was spotted by an orthodontist.
She said: "After three years we are still waiting. We haven't even been given a date. I have contacted the clinic numerous times and keep being told ‘it won't be long now’.
