A BURNLEY man whose operation to remove his gall bladder was cancelled more than two weeks ago has still not been given a new appointment by Burnley Health Care NHS Trust.

Alastair Sydney, of Crowther Street, was told by a hospital worker on the evening of Monday November 5 that his operation the following morning had been cancelled.

The Trust said the reason for the cancellation was a large increase in the number of emergency admissions and all elective surgery for that week had been postponed.

Since then, Alastair expected to hear something from the hospital and a new date for the operation to be set -- but there has been no news.

At the time Alastair said that days off from work through illness had cost him £1,200 and he had lost 13lbs in two weeks.

He said: "I still haven't heard anything from Burnley General Hospital and I am worse than ever."

Since his operation was cancelled, Alastair has been back to his doctors and has been prescribed more pain killers. He has also asked his GP to write to Burnley Health Care NHS Trust to demand that his case is urgently reviewed.

"The letter was sent last week, but we have not had a reply to that either."

The pain that Alastair is enduring means that he is having more time off from work. He was forced to take three days off the week before and a day off this week. The trauma is also putting a strain on his family life.

He said: "My wife is not the same around me any more. I have been snapping at her because I'm just not the same person. We used to look forward to Christmas, but this year won't be the same. We don't have as much money as we usually have."

Burnley NHS Trust was unavailable for comment.