HEALTH chiefs in Worcestershire have been slammed for their "apathetic approach" towards the absence of a consultant radiologist in the county.

It is thought that up to 60 men across Worcestershire are being left with an agonising 16-week wait to find out if they have prostate cancer because Dr Umeshi Udeshi, a senior consultant radiologist at Kidderminster Hospital, was injured in the tsunami disaster and has been unable to return to work.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust announced last week that it would be a "short-term" problem and two specialist practitioners were being trained to carry out biopsies.

David Chapman from Woodbridge Close, St Peter's, is one of the patients having to endure an agonising wait for a biopsy.

The 77-year-old was told he may have prostate cancer on Wednesday, January 26 - but was not told there was no-one to carry out a biopsy.

"This is a disgrace. The wait is unbearable," he told the Evening News.

Malcolm Cooper, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago, has slammed a "lack of managerial accountability" at the Trust which he says should have had provisions in place to cover for Dr Udeshi's absence.

"The public knew about Dr Udeshi as soon as it happened so the Trust obviously knew and should have made alternative arrangements to send patients elsewhere for treatment," said the 75-year-old from Trimpley, near Kidderminster.

"Instead, patients are having to suffer the anxiety, trauma and devastation of not knowing exactly what stage their cancer is at."

A Trust spokesman said the Trust accepted that the length of time that patients currently have to wait for a prostate biopsy is unacceptable.

"The issue was recognised some time ago and measures put in place to increase our capacity for carrying out these tests," he said.

"We began training a peri-operative specialist practitioner based at Kidderminster Hospital to carry out prostate biopsies.

"We are putting in place a short-term solution which will see one of our other consultant radiologists holding extra sessions at Kidderminster," he added.