A MAN who has been waiting more than six months for surgery to remove a brain tumour has had his operation cancelled yet again by Southampton General Hospital.

Chef Carl Brown, 33, of Wallisdown in Bournemouth, was told by doctors last December that he should have the tumour removed as soon as possible.

Last month he received a letter telling him the 12-hour procedure had been put off indefinitely because of a shortage of specialist anaesthetists at the hospital's Wessex Neurologi-cal Centre.

He was then offered a date on May 22, which was cancelled, and then one for yesterday, which was cancelled last Friday morning - the day after he had attended a pre-op appointment.

"They can't give me another date," said Carl. "I get all wound up then find out it's been cancelled again. I was looking forward to getting it all done so I could start recovering and living my life again. I feel I am getting worse. I'm fed up - every time they say to come in, my operation is cancelled."

Carl has been unable to work since last December. Although the tumour is not malignant, it causes him headaches, dizzy spells, and deteriorating eyesight. He also tires easily and spends much of his time in bed.

Southampton Hospital spokes-man Peter Campion said the cancellations were not linked to the previous shortage of anaesthetists, which had been largely resolved.

"The vast majority of the neurological unit's work is emergency admissions. You only need a couple of car smashes where people have head injuries and that's it - the surgeons get pulled into that and intensive care beds are no longer available. We don't like cancelling planned patients any more than they like being cancelled. We try and get them in as quickly as possible, but it's impossible to guarantee we won't suddenly have an emergency admission."

Mr Campion added that Mr Brown could not be treated any more quickly even if he could pay. "The capacity isn't there and the surgeons don't do that sort of operation privately," he said.