The island is still without a full time ear, nose and throat surgeon, more than four months after doctors said the shortage could cost lives.

The Government has revealed that a private practice has now begun a recruitment “effort“, although health officials were unable to say when a specialist surgeon will be hired.

The island’s only full time ENT specialist, Philip Bell, left the island in March on health grounds.

A veteran ENT surgeon, Wesley Miller, is now employed by the Bermuda Hospitals Board as its chief of staff and only sees private patients onweekends.

In September, Kim Wilson, the Minister of Health, said she was confident that a specialist would be hired.

Ms Wilson said that the Bermuda Health Council was working to ensure “we have the suitable types of health professionals on the island to meet our patient needs as appropriate”.

She added that medical professionals were being “encouraged” to hire an ENT physician for their practices.

This week a spokeswoman for the Bermuda Health Council said: “We have consulted with our relevant partners on this and defer to them on an update.

“Please request any further updates through the Ministry of Health and the office of the Chief Medical Officer office regarding this matter.”

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health later said: “As stated previously, in Bermuda, it is the private sector that employs such specialists. We are aware of a recruitment effort in the private sector which is under way now.

“We anticipate the service provider will make an announcement in due course once completed. However, we do not yet know when an ENT specialist will be on island.”