A PATIENT awaiting life-changing surgery has hit out at the way gastric surgeries are being administered.

Gavin Solly, who weighs 29 stone, has been waiting for an operation for six years and said he is angry with the system that he claims is letting him down.

New figures from the NHS show a sharp increase in the number of people receiving gastric procedures in the past seven years, from 480 in 2003 to 2004 to 4,246 in 2008 to 2009.

Mr Solly, 51, of Yalbury Lane, Crossways, said he has had his hopes built up and dashed several times over the years.

He said: “I feel angry with the system, I feel like I am being punished.

“There are people getting this surgery at 60 and 70 stones and I’m under 30 stones and they say I’m too big.

“It’s my choice, I can sign a piece of paper to say that if anything happens it’s my choice.

“How can they get the surgery and I can’t?”

Mr Solly, who is a grandfather of 14 children, added: “I desperately want the surgery.

“I want to get out of this house and feel the sun and the wind.

“It’s silly things like that that you miss.

“I’d love to go fishing again, I want to get out and about with my family.”

Mr Solly became bedridden after an accident eight years ago when he fell down steps and damaged discs in his back and broke his coccyx working at Dorset County Hospital.

Next week he will go to Dorset County Hospital where he will have a camera put down his throat to see if there are any ulcers in his stomach.

If he receives the all clear, Mr Solly hopes to have the surgery by Christmas, in what he described as the ‘best Christmas present ever’.

Mr Solly says that he can’t sit up for more than 15 minutes without being in ‘agony,’ but that he is able to walk round more easily since losing five stones.

He said he was 20 stones when he had the accident and gained weight because he couldn’t exercise. He had been due to have the surgery last year at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, but it was cancelled at the last minute over fears for his safety.

Two ops each month in county

Dorset’s figures for gastric surgery are lower than those for the UK average but show that two operations were conducted every month in the last year.

Operations carried out for the most obese people in England soared over the past five years, according to the NHS Information Centre.

Data for 2003/04 showed there were 480 procedures, rising to 4,246 in 2008/09.

A spokesperson for NHS Dorset said: “There are a number of initiatives operating across the county to help those who want to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

“Surgery for patients assessed as being morbidly obese is a last resort to aid weight reduction and before referral for surgery is considered, all other non– surgical options must have been exhausted.”