A man still waiting for a treatment plan 10 weeks after being diagnosed with terminal cancer has hit out at NHS failings he believes are shortening lives.

Charles Walker, 71, of High Street, Maryport, was being treated for another condition in the West Cumberland Hospital on October 30 when he was told he was suffering terminal pancreatic cancer.

He said he was told medics would urgently discuss his case and assign an oncologist to discuss palliative care.

But two-and-a-half months later, Mr Walker has still not been allocated his own specialist doctor and has no care plan.

He has had some chemotherapy, but said the lack of a consultant almost led to that having fatal consequences.

Mr Walker said: “I know I am dying – everyone dies – but that will happen considerably sooner than it needed to have done had the so-called management of our hospital trust put the experience and welfare of cancer patients above economics.

“There could be patients who might have been cured, or had their lives extended, had the management of cancer care in this county been anything remotely adequate. Our earlier deaths are entirely on their hands.”

Workington MP Sue Hayman has raised the issue with ministers after Mr Walker wrote to her about his care.

The MP said: “This has been an appalling wait and lack of care and is not acceptable. I have written to health secretary Jeremy Hunt and the CEO of the trust.”

Seven weeks after his diagnosis, Mr Walker called the trust, only to be told at 12.45pm he had been due in Whitehaven at 10am that day. He had not received the appointment.

Mr Walker said: “The oncologist was very good but concerned that it had taken so long to see me. He said in his clinic in Pakistan I would have been seen within a week.”

The oncologist booked Mr Walker in for chemotherapy but he remained without a care plan.

The treatment left him with life-threatening sepsis due to an infection he believes would have been detected had he had a consultant.

He was due another round last week but this was postponed because of the results of a liver function test, which he had insisted the nurses carry out.

Mr Walker has now seen an oncologist who travelled from Newcastle but is still waiting to be designated a specialist.

He said he had already been let down again after receiving an appointment for yesterday, only to be told there was no clinic that day.

A spokesman for North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust said it was unable to comment on Mr Walker’s case because of confidentiality but would contact him directly.