A York man whose surgery was cancelled twice in the last fortnight due to a York District Hospital beds shortage has hit out at the presence there of animal rights activist Barry Horne.

Peter Newton was due to have operations on his nose and throat a fortnight ago. That was rescheduled for yesterday but was cancelled again. Mr Newton was told both times it was due to a shortage of beds.

He added: "I don't object to it being cancelled because of these people there who are genuinely ill with the flu or life-threatening illnesses. But I do object to him (Barry Horne) being in there, and myself and other people having their operations cancelled when he's taking up a bed."

Mr Newton asked for his address to be withheld because he was concerned he might become a target for sympathisers of Barry Horne, who was jailed for 18 years over an animal rights arson campaign.

A second man, so concerned about reprisals that he asked for his name to be withheld, has also told the Evening Press how his surgery was delayed.

The man from East Yorkshire wrote to the York Health Trust to complain after an operation on his spine was cancelled, saying having the hunger striker in hospital added "insult to injury".

Horne was taken to the hospital last week after ending his latest hunger strike in Full Sutton Prison near York.

A hospital spokeswoman said: "He continues to be very weak and remains under assessment."

Colin Watts, general manager at the hospital, said: "Barry Horne is only one of many emergency patients that have been admitted to the hospital over the last week or so. The numbers have varied between 35 and 50 a day, and as a response to that we have had to cancel a number of operations across all specialties."

Mr Watts said: "Once the doctors take the decision to admit a patient as an emergency on medical grounds it's not our job to be judgmental in deciding whether that patient should be admitted or not."

A hospital spokeswoman added that all 13 non-urgent operations in the ENT ward had been cancelled yesterday.

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