A SOUTHAMPTON man today told how he has had to put his life on hold for more than a year while waiting for a vital heart X-ray.

Tim Surplice suffered a heart attack last April but, after being discharged from Southampton General Hospital, a consultant told him he should have had an angiogram - an X-ray of the blood vessels around the heart to determine whether a bypass operation is needed - while still in hospital.

Mr Surplice, who has since lost his job as a support worker for adult learning disabilities as his GP has told him not to work until he has the angiogram, was told he would face an eight-month wait for the procedure as an outpatient.

But he is still waiting for an appointment more than a year later.

Mr Surplice, from Dales Way, Totton, said: "They send you for the preliminary, that was before Christmas, and the doctor said I should be seen about Christmas time.

"After that I phoned them up and they said I had another three months and it's been four months and I'm still waiting to hear.

"They've given me tablets for the chest paints I've been getting, my GP has been really helpful but I can't go back to work until I've had the angiogram and I'm worried about my heart."

Mr Surplice's partner Pamela Hart, 47, added: "The doctor said his heart has taken a pounding and he is likely to need surgery.

"He feels well enough to go back to work but he can't because there's nobody that will take him on because the doctors say they don't want him to work."

Hospital spokeswoman Marilyn Kay said 12 months was the maximum wait for the procedure.

Health chiefs are to decide this month whether to approve a £52m cardiac centre for South-ampton.

Part of the project, which has already been approved, includes a new catheter laboratory, which will be open by June and will bring the wait for an angiogram down to nine months by next March.

Mrs Kay said: "The catheter laboratory which is opening in June will be so useful and that should bring the waits down because there's only one laboratory at the moment."