A FATHER of two who survived a heart attack has spoken out after his bypass operation was delayed.

Eddie Taylor, 49, fears that unless he has surgery, the next attack could be fatal.

He suffers severe chest pains every day and can hardly walk more than a few steps.

Mr Taylor is angry because he says he was promised his operation a month ago. But Mr Taylor, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, is still waiting.

Bosses at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough admitted that operations have been delayed because of staff sickness.

The former factory worker had a heart attack in June last year.

Six months later a scan confirmed that he needed a bypass operation.

On June 16, he saw a surgeon at the Middlesbrough heart unit who gave him good news.

"He said there is no problem, we can can get you in by the end of July. I thought that was great," said Mr Taylor, who signed consent forms for surgery. But July came and went and there was no phone call from the hospital.

"At the end of July I phoned the hospital and a secretary told me they were having problems," said Mr Taylor.

Increasingly worried and with more acute symptoms, he contacted the hospital at the beginning of August.

Mr Taylor claims that he was told that he would not be able to have his operation in August because priority was being given to hitting Government waiting list targets. This is strongly disputed by the hospital.

Dr Jim Hall, chief of cardiothoracic services at James Cook University Hospital, said: "The reason why we have had to put off some operations is because of sickness. We have two specialist anaesthetists who are off sick, long term."

Dr Hall said staff had worked extremely hard to prevent queues building up.

"We are actually ten per cent down on activity but it does mean people have been put back," he said.

The cardiologist said Mr Taylor's operation was "pencilled in" for September.

Official figures show that at the end of June, 176 patients who need bypass operations had been waiting long-er than nine months in the Northern and Yorkshire region.