A HULL landlord undergoing treatment for "aggressive" prostate cancer received a letter informing him his hospital check-up was being delayed three months. Tony Dunbar, 66, who runs The Alexandra Hotel in Hessle Road, west Hull, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
Earlier this week he received a letter from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust informing him his appointment at Hull Royal Infirmary, which was booked for December 30, had been put back to March 3.
Mr Dunbar, who has run the pub – – once a popular haunt of the city's trawlermen – for 26 years, said: "When you have aggressive cancer, it is constantly on your mind and you expect your appointment to be kept.
"Being told your appointment has been put back three months is the last thing you want to hear from the hospital.
"Anything can happen in three months.
"To me, it's like a form of mind torture being made to wait that long."
No reason was given for the postponement in the letter, which was dated December 10 and signed off "Appointments Clerk".
It states: "We apologise, but your outpatient appointment with Mr DJ Almond has had to be changed and a new appointment has been arranged for you."
After the Mail contacted the trust, Mr Dunbar was contacted by hospital staff and given an earlier appointment.
A trust spokesman said: "We are unable to provide any specific details on Mr Dunbar's treatment for reasons of patient confidentiality. However. having discussed the matter with him and taking into account his clinical requirements, we have agreed a suitable alternative appointment date.
"All of our services have to flex to allow for circumstances such as planned periods of staff absence and, therefore, it is not uncommon for appointments to have to be rescheduled, however we would always aim to keep any new dates as near to the original as possible.
"The later appointment offered to Mr Dunbar appears not to have taken into account the specifics of his treatment plan, and is therefore not reflective of any specific pressures within the urology service."
However, Mr Dunbar believes staff are overworked due to NHS cutbacks.
"The medical staff and Macmillan nurses, especially, have been absolutely brilliant and I can't knock them," he said.
"But it seems to me they are overworked and I blame this Government for the pressure it is putting on our hospitals.
"All David Cameron and his government care about is cutting costs and getting the debt down, but what about those of us who need the NHS?"
To add to Mr Dunbar's woes, The Alexandra Hotel, which he runs with business partner Ernie Scott, was badly damaged during last Thursday's tidal surge.
He said: "I have had a real bad run of it this year.
"I'm heartbroken about the pub. This place has been my life for the past 26 years. It looks as though it is going to be shut for three months or more."
Water was chest-deep in parts of the pub and Mr Dunbar is doing what he can, given his ill-health, to mop up the damage while awaiting a damage bill from a loss adjustor.
He said: "The carpets, bandits, furniture, disco equipment, the lot, are ruined.
"We had Christmas parties booked and we've had to cancel them."
Mr Dunbar recalled the moment the surge hit the pub.
"Ernie had seen the water coming down the street and had rushed inside to move our disco equipment on to the stage," he said.
"I had to smash him out of a room because the weight of the water meant the door would not open. If the water had got any higher, he could have drowned."
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