HEART patients who have already had an angioplasty have joined in the outrage at operations being delayed because of funding.

Ron Deighton, 67, of Old Orchard, Fulford, had his angioplasty last month after waiting since last July.

He said: "I had a long wait myself and it is wrong. But I am making a good recovery now.

"I just think it wrong that funding should be put ahead of people's lives."

His wife, Erica, said: "I went mad when I saw yesterday's story in the Evening Press - this could so easily have been my husband. It is so wrong that people should have to wait just so it might fit in with money and budgets."

Betty Hutchinson, 72, of Elston Place, Selby, is almost bed-bound as she waits for a double heart bypass, but she wanted to add her voice to the complaints that people are having to wait longer for an angioplasty because of money.

"This is not the doctors' fault. They do a marvellous job - but it looks like their hands are tied."

Updated: 16:19 Thursday, February 07, 2002