The father of a toddler, who is having to be given liquid through a tube, says health workers are playing with her life.

Natalie-Rose Denney-Hook has suffered from an 'unsafe swallow' since she was born.

Now her father Nathan Denney, 24, says surgeons at King’s College Hospital in London have cancelled three operations which have been booked to take out a temporary feeding tube.

The device, which bypasses the throat and sends liquids straight to the stomach to stop the one-year-old choking, was scheduled to be removed and replaced with a more permanent tube in November last year but was postponed.

A rescheduled op in January was also called off and put back until last Thursday.

But Nathan and Natalie-Rose’s mum, Shannon Hook, 21, turned up at the London hospital with the youngster to find out she would not be operated on.

Mr Denney, of Acorn Street, Sheerness, said: “She’s got to have a feeding tube put in to her stomach but we’ve been let down so many times.

“We should’ve had it done by now. There’s four or five other consultants who could do it.

“Apparently this time the ward staff knew the surgeon wouldn’t be able to do it at 1pm, we arrived at 3pm and weren’t told to go home until 8pm.

“We had to wait about seven hours to be told she wasn’t going to have the operation.”

He also spoke about the impact it is having on the one-year-old.

“Three times they’ve cancelled the operation,” he added.

“We’re really devastated, we’re annoyed that it wasn’t happening. It’s like they’re playing with her life.”

The procedure can take about two hours to complete.

Natalie-Rose’s three-year-old sister, Ruby-Shel often helps to gather the right equipment so her parents can feed the toddler her milk, which is prescribed by a doctor.

A spokesman for King’s College Hospital said: “We are very sorry that the operation couldn’t go ahead on three occasions, one of which was when the patient was not well enough and therefore out of our control.

“We are working to reschedule the operation as quickly as possible.”