A piano remover fears his livelihood is under threat after waiting nearly two weeks for an operation to treat a broken arm.

Mark Bliss, of Kingston Road, North Oxford, fractured his right arm on Sunday, January 21, but is still waiting for surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

To end the delays, the 57-year-old has now decided to travel to Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital to have the vital treatment.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has now apologised for the delay and said it was difficult to predict the demand for its trauma surgery, which deals with emergency cases.

However, Mr Bliss warned he would take legal action against the JR if the long wait caused any long-term damage preventing him from continuing his specialist removal work.

He said: "I asked to be sent to any hospital in the UK that could take me, but was told that because I went to the JR accident and emergency, I was now in their system. I've been told I'm very near the top of the priority list.

"If I find that the healing process has been compromised, I'll sue the hospital because I'm a one-trick pony and I'm too old to retrain to do something else."

Mr Bliss, who lives with his wife, solicitor Abby Abrahams, and their nine-year-old daughter Zoë, was moving a grand piano up a flight of stairs when he injured his arm.

The break was diagnosed following an X-ray at the JR casualty department, and he was referred to the hospital's fracture clinic the next morning.

He said: "The consultant told me it was a nice clean break and a good outcome could be expected. He said they needed to put a plate in and there would be a four to six week recovery time.

"The bad news, he said, was that there were no beds available so I couldn't have the operation straight away.

"I asked him how long I could go without treatment, and he said he wouldn't like to see me go much beyond 10 days, and certainly not 14 days."

Despite being told that he could not go elsewhere for the operation, Mr Bliss's GP at St Clement's Surgery, Oxford, organised an appointment at the Royal Berkshire.

Following an initial consultation at the hospital, he accepted a slot for surgery.

He said: "I'm very grateful to my doctor, but I think it's a disgrace frankly. This is the NHS at its worst."

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which oversees the JR, apologised for the delay suffered by Mr Bliss.

The trust has now contacted him with an appointment, although Mr Bliss had already accepted the Reading appointment.

A spokesman said: "Trauma is almost exclusively an emergency service, which means it is extremely difficult to predict demand.

"We try to be as responsive as possible by adjusting to additional pressures, and the trust has recently invested extra theatre capacity for trauma surgery."