Parents David and Lesley Burnell are angry and upset after their daughter's operation was cancelled at the last moment.
Seven-year-old Saydie was due to have her tonsils and adenoids removed at Leicester Royal Infirmary on Monday morning.
However, the family, of Market Harborough, received a message from hospital managers shortly before 8am to say the operation had been cancelled due to a shortage of beds.
David, 37, said: "My wife and I are angry and upset and my daughter was in hysterics when she heard the operation wasn't happening.
"Saydie is affected by sleep apnoea and struggles to breathe at night. Her consultant told us she needed this operation because of the stress being caused to her heart."
The youngster was also due to have grommets – small plastic tubes – inserted into her ears.
Mr Burnell said: "We have been worrying about the operation for weeks and I did call the hospital on Sunday at about 6pm as I thought she might be getting a cold and I was told that was fine. Saydie would be checked when we got there next morning.
"On Monday, I checked my phone, at about 7.45am, and found a message saying Saydie's operation had been cancelled due to a shortage of beds.
"I am so angry. It has caused complete chaos. My wife and I have our own businesses and were unable to see clients."
Several telephone calls later he discovered a number of other operations had also been cancelled.
David said: "We have been given a new date of December 2 but, of course, there is no guarantee that even then Saydie's operation will go ahead.
"Everyone at the hospital I spoke to seemed a bit blasé about the whole thing.
"I was passed from pillar to post and no-one seemed to want to help."
Latest figures show a total of 847 operations were cancelled on the day of admission at Leicester's hospitals between April and October this year. Of these, 60 per cent were cancelled due a lack of beds at the city's three hospitals.
Almost all patients – 98.5 per cent – were offered a new date for their operation within 28 days of cancellation.
Phil Walmsley, head of operations at Leicester's hospitals, said: "We are incredibly sorry for the disruption and upset caused to Saydie and her parents by canceling her operation at short notice.
"High numbers of recent emergency admissions resulted in the cancellation of elective operations on Monday.
"We try to manage these situations through our clinical teams meeting each day to try to ensure there are beds available, but in this case we were unable to do all our planned surgery."
Zuffar Haq, of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel, said: "Cancelled operations are going to be a major problem over the next few months as we know there is a shortage of hospital beds.
"Patients prepare for their operations and it is not good enough they are treated in this way again and again."
![Last-minute op cancellation at Leicester Royal Infirmary leaves seven-year-old distraught]( "Last-minute op cancellation at Leicester Royal Infirmary leaves seven-year-old distraught")
