Cancer patient's surgery despair

A 74-year-old cancer sufferer says his operation to remove a fast-growing tumour was cancelled last month because Hawke's Bay Hospital did not have enough beds.

Farmer Bunty Williams said his cancer may have spread too far for it to be operated on when the rescheduled operation came up in a month.

The Hastings hospital has postponed 56 operations in the past three weeks because patients with winter ailments have filled beds left for patients recovering from surgery.

Mr Williams was diagnosed with a large tumour on April 30. A procedure three weeks later found it had not yet spread beyond the bladder.

Tests showed the cancer was growing rapidly and would kill him within 18 months if left untreated.

The operation, booked for July 23, was cancelled on July 22, a few hours before Mr Williams was to drive to the hospital. Health board managers had said the hospital was cancelling non-urgent elective surgery, he said.

"Elective maybe, but non-urgent? Not from where I'm sitting," he said.

"I want to point out what's happened to us, and that a hospital that can't attend to cancer patients immediately is a hospital in crisis."

The cancellations will put more pressure on Hawke's Bay Hospital's waiting lists.

The health board failed to return calls about Mr Williams.

- NZPA