Posted by 
A shortage of anaesthetists at a Sydney hospital has been experienced by one mother who says her daughter's deadly condition was almost dismissed.
The state government has promised it is working on a solution.
Charlotte Rothe, two, has a rare birth defect, the severity of which almost went undiagnosed.
READ MORE: Brittany Higgins makes first public statement since retrial aborted
Her mother Camilla Rothe from Llandilo near Penrith took her little girl to the Children's Hospital at Westmead after she noticed the girl's eyes were unable to focus.
"She's waking up all night, headaches, she's in pain," she said.
Charlotte was diagnosed with Chiari malformation in which brain tissue puts pressure on the spinal cord.
She was sent home, waiting for an urgent MRI.
But because of her age, she needed to be put under anaesthetic to keep her still.
Nine months is the current waitlist for an MRI with general anaesthetic, her mother said.
Charlotte was fast tracked, but because she caught COVID-19 the MRI was put off again.
READ MORE: Alleged Islamic State terrorist Neil Prakash extradited to Victoria
With her daughter getting worse, Rothe drove her daughter to the Children's Hospital emergency department and demanded help.
"The neurology team just said, 'thank goodness you brought her back to the ED to get us to review her'. Otherwise things could have been a lot different for us," Rothe said.
She said she sat in a ward for more than a week because there weren't enough staff to do the surgery.
"They either call you or turn around and say, 'we can't do it there's just not enough facilities, theatres, too many kids'," Rothe said.
"Apparently that morning they had 30 kids needing life-saving surgery, so she got bumped off the list."
The hospital says the surgery was performed within the clinically recommended timeframe and the timing was based on Charlotte's condition as well as safety.
Doctors at the Children's Hospital are not surprised.
READ MORE: Fisherman dies after being swept off rocks
In May, 50 of them wrote to Health Minister Brad Hazzard warning him of the critical lack of staff.
"We are currently extremely concerned that we will be unable to maintain the best standards of safety for the babies and children in our care due to the senior staffing recruitment and retention crisis within these paediatric critical care departments," the letter said.
Hazzard has called on the federal government to fast-track visas to get staff from overseas.
"We need visas and fast processing of visas to get staff into New South Wales and Australia," he said.
Of the 41 specialist anaesthetists at Westmead, just four are full time.
That's compared to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne where there are 30 full-time.
There are roughly 2000 children on the elective surgery waiting list at the Children's Hospital at Westmead.
That's up more than 30 per cent in 12 months.
Doctors are privately concerned that unless pay and conditions match other states and the private system, it will just get worse.
Other states pay paediatric specialists up to $600,000, 50 per cent more than NSW.
NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns said the state can't compete with jobs elsewhere.
"It's every parent's worst nightmare to have a child that's in serious pain and not getting the help and support you need," he said.
"When you look at the pay and conditions of front line workers, they are just not commensurate with other states."
The hospital said any child needing urgent surgery would receive it without delay, and 99 per cent of urgent elective surgeries are performed on time.
Rothe says unless change happens fast she fears kids will fall through the cracks.
"Just do something because I just don't know how many more children need to suffer for something to be done," she said.
Source: 9News
