A North-East family poised for a court case to establish whether Greek medical staff killed their son, have been told the hearing will not take place for another eight months.

Relatives of Christopher Rochester were in Rhodes yesterday ready for the trial of three doctors and two nurses charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. The case was due to begin that morning but the family's anguish has been prolonged after Rhodes Town Court decided to adjourn the hearing until May 14.

Mr Rochester, a bar and entertainments manager from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, fell 40ft from a balcony on the holiday resort of Faliraki two years ago, when he was visiting his brother Keith, who lived there.

An ambulance took 40 minutes to reach Rhodes hospital where Mr Rochester then bled to death from a fractured pelvis. His family claim his death was due to neglect and poor treatment from medical staff on duty that night.

The case was delayed despite the best attempts of the family and North Durham MP Kevan Jones who travelled to Greece with the family. The British party had worked late into the night on the eve of the trial, meeting with their Greek appointed solicitor and British Consulate to ensure they had all the correct documents for the trial to go ahead.

But one of the accused doctors Sergios Paulidis had not been properly summoned as he was working on secondment in a Moscow hospital and one of the female nurses was absent, prompting magistrates to put off the case until next year.

Doctors Michael Sokorelos and George Karavolias and male nurse Pinagiotis Kalafatis were present in court and stood alongside Pam Cummings, mother of Mr Rochester, who under Greek law can be represented throughout the trial.

None of the defendants have yet entered a plea to the manslaughter charge, an offence which carries up to five years in prison.

The family has remained positive about the court's decision. Mrs Cummings said despite the lengthy delay, she was pleased to finally see action being taken.

Until now she was doubtful that there was real impetus in pushing ahead with legal proceedings.

She said: "We feel that things are actually happening now, whereas over the last two years we seem to have had a continuous fight to get information to move forward with this case.

"Now we are here we feel things are moving in a positive direction and we feel lucky that we have got the support that we have and we hope that support will be with us when we return in May."

It is the first time she has gone to the holiday resort where her son died and she was accompanied by her husband and Christopher's step-father George Cummings, her other son Keith and five close family and friends.

Mr Cummings said when they arrived they knew nothing of Greek court procedures, or even whether they would be represented by a solicitor. The family's first solicitor withdrew less than a fortnight before the trial and a second solicitor was then instructed but he also withdrew. But Mr Jones managed to secure the services of solicitor Sotirios Manolkidis at the eleventh hour.

Mr Manolkidis has successfully managed to have Mr Rochester's brother Keith named as a witness for next year's trial, as he was with his brother as he slowly bled to death on a hospital trolley. He has also helped the issue of Christopher's missing kidney.

It emerged during an inquest in Durham that Greek doctors had removed one of his kidneys and had not returned it with his body. The family asked for its return and demanded DNA tests were carried out on the organ, which revealed the kidney belonged to somebody else.

The MP said: "Getting here today has been a trial. Today's experience without the help of the British consulate and the Greek solicitor would have been impossible. We would have gone nowhere today. I am confident now it is going in the right direction. There are still a lot of unanswered questions which need answering."