The parents of a nine-year-old autistic boy whose finger was partially severed in an accident were forced to wait four days for surgery after urgent operations to reattach it were twice cancelled.

Paul and Sue Jowett spent 18 hours at Bradford Royal Infirmary over two days with their son Harry who had caught his finger in a door at school.

In desperation Mr Jowett, of Clayton, arranged for his son to have the operation carried out privately after hospital bosses were unable to say when the treatment could be carried out.

Finally last Sunday, four days after the accident, the operation went ahead at the hospital.

Today, the couple said they would be lodging a formal complaint about the delay, which they claim was made worse because only one operating theatre was available at BRI and this was also being used for patients from outside Bradford.

Mr Jowett said: "They told me that there were other cases which were more urgent and I understand that completely but I don't think someone should have to wait this long for an operation, especially not a child with special needs who doesn't understand what is going on.

"My son is autistic and he needs to have structure in his life. Everything needs to be black and white, there can be no grey areas and this has completely upset his routine."

A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs BRI, said: "We are pleased that we were able to perform the surgery but we would like to apologise for the delay. This was because of a large number of patients requiring more urgent treatment."

Harry's ordeal started on Thursday afternoon when he was rushed to hospital with the top of the middle finger on his right hand hanging off after trapping it in the hinge of a door at Clayton C of E Primary School. He was taken to BRI's accident and emergency department where his parents say they were told he needed surgery and would be operated on that same day. But after waiting for more than four hours, the couple were told to take their son home as the operation could not be carried out because of the number of emergency cases.

Harry was told not to eat anything o vernight because he would be operated on the next day.

The family returned to the hospital on Friday morning but after waiting for 14 hours without food Harry was again told the operation could not go ahead and he was sent home again.

On Saturday hospital staff told Mr Jowett they still did not know when the surgery would take place.

He decided to try to pay for the operation himself through his own private healthcare scheme with Standard Life which covers himself, his wife and their four children.

He said: "I explained to BRI that I had a private healthcare plan which could pay for everything and they said they could do the operation on Sunday."

The operation to remove Harry's nail and stitch together his finger finally went ahead on Sunday.

Mr Jowett said he thought his son was being treated privately but a spokesman for BRI told the Telegraph & Argus that Harry had been seen as a NHS patient.

Mr Jowett said he was unhappy with the system and not the staff at the BRI.

"All the staff at BRI were absolutely superb, all of the nurses on ward two and the surgeon as well," he said.

Now he is lodging a formal complaint against the hospital about the situation.

He said: "The nature of the complaint will be there only seemed to be one theatre available to cope with acute surgery cases.

"And patients were being brought in from as far away as places like Harrogate, so how are Bradford people who have problems or who suffer injuries going to get treated because they are continually being pushed to the back of the queue by more important cases?"

"I think there is a lack of resources being spent on this side of things."

Yesterday, a Trust spokesman was unable to say whether patients from outside the area were undergoing surgery at the hospital over the weekend.

He said: "We will look closely into any correspondence we receive and talk directly with the family to listen to any concerns."

He stressed that no theatres have been closed or reduced since the debt-ridden hospital launched a series of cost-cutting measures last year.

He added: "Most of the time there are two theatres open during the week for acute cases and one at the weekend.

"We had two surgeries open last week apart from Saturday when there was one and a then a second surgery was opened because we were so busy."

Bradford West MP Marsha Singh said he would be very concerned if the hospital was giving family members assurances about operation times which were not being met.

He said: "This must have caused a worry for the parents and if you have a boy who is even slightly autistic it must have been very unsettling for him as well.

"This does not sound acceptable to me and if the constituent would like to write to me I would be happy to take it up on his behalf."