NEWPORT man Keith Marchant is finally set for an operation on his broken leg - after a seven week wait.

Mr Marchant has been unwillingly bed-blocking at the Royal Gwent Hospital, after an operation on his snapped femur was postponed.

The 64-year-old, from Allt-yr-Yn View, New-port, was admitted to the hospital in early April after he broke his femur in a gardening accident. Now he is due to have the operation tomorrow.

His son Jeremy Marchant, 36, from Alan-brooke Avenue, in Mal-pas, told the Argus: "It has been so frustrating for him. He's been sat in bed for the last seven weeks. "It's so crazy - he's blocking a bed and preventing somebody else from going to have an operation.

"He's not in pain because he's taking a cocktail of drugs - an enormous amount of pills. "He can't move - he's on a special air bed to minimise the pressure sores on him. "The staff are fine, he's got nothing but praise for the nurses but the consultant has told him there's nothing they can do."

Mr Marchant said his father was due to have an operation two weeks but it had to be cancelled at the last-minute.

"It is the system that has let him down - the government and a lack or resources invested in the National Health Service."

Mr Marchant said the delay had caused most anxiety to his 63-year-old mother Ann. "It's getting to my mum quite badly and she's quite down about the whole thing.

"I am relieved that it looks as if it's going to happen but after what happened last time, I'm not holding my breath."

A spokesman for Gwent Healthcare Trust said Mr Marchant's operation was complex and the delay had been caused by the need to order specialist theatre equipment.