BBCTom Lawson said he has had three heart attacks while waiting for gastric surgeryA patient due to have gastric bypass surgery said he faces a "month of worry" because his treatment has been delayed due to strike action by resident doctors.
Tom Lawson, 45, from Washington near Sunderland, said he has suffered three heart attacks while waiting more than three years for the surgery, which has now been pushed back to May.
He said postponing the procedure, due to take place at Sunderland Royal Hospital this week, was delaying his return to work and "a productive lifestyle".
The latest six-day action by British Medical Association (BMA) members is the 15th strike since 2023 after talks with the government broke down over new pay and training deals.
The BMA said not enough has been done to address concerns about pay and job shortages, while the government said doctors' expectations are unreasonable and unrealistic.
Lawson, whose surgery was originally scheduled for the coming weekend, said: "It was kind of like being hit with a sledgehammer."
While he understood the reasons for the strike, he said it would have a knock-on effect as his surgery, now scheduled for when his son is sitting his GCSEs, will impact his ability to get back to work.
"Ultimately, the impact on me personally is another month of worry," Lawson said.
"It's the whole fundamental reasoning behind wanting to have this procedure, to allow me to get some of my health back - to allow me to get back into employment and get back into a productive lifestyle."
'Incredibly frustrating'
Formerly called junior doctors, in the last four years resident doctors have had a 33% pay increase in a series of deals.
The government said industrial action is costing the NHS £50m per day.
Striking outside the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on Tuesday, Dr Harry Waterman said: "We're not just being greedy, we acknowledge that there's been an uplift, that there's been more than other professions have received.
"But what you also need to do is you need to put that into context of that fact that we'd seen far greater erosion than other public sector health workers have seen."
The government had offered an extra 1,000 training places for resident doctors, but that has been taken off the table due to these latest strikes.
"It's been incredibly frustrating because we know those thousand training places wouldn't only benefit doctors, they would benefit the public," Waterman said.
"To make those waiting lists come down, part of the thing we need to do is actually increase the amount of consultants that we have."
The Department of Health and Social Care said the government had offered a generous deal and it is disappointing the BMA has pressed on with strike action.
It added the attention of the NHS will now be focused on minimising disruption.
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