The NHS may have to pay to treat patients abroad

Eleanor Court wants Cardiff Local Health Board to agree within 14 days to pay for the operation in France or face court action to force payment.

At the beginning of the month the High Court ruled that the NHS may have to pay to treat patients abroad if they cannot operate quickly enough.

Cardiff Central MP Jon Owen Jones, a former Welsh Office health minister, is backing Mrs Court's challenge.

Mrs Court said she was fed up with waiting.

"I think it's awful," she said. "There must be hundreds in the same position as me.

"We've paid our national health all our working life, now we want a bit of help, but we can't get it."

These operations can be treated just as cheaply if not cheaper in northern France than her in the UK MP Jon Owen Jones

Mrs Court said she had not been able to go on holiday this year in case treatment became available while she was away.

"If I sit down for any length of time it's as if everything gets knotted up. I get terrible stiffness in my hip, and a shooting pain.

"My husband is disabled and if I fell over there is no way he could pick me up."

Lawyers acting for Mrs Court have issued the health board with a 14-day ultimatum to pay for her to receive the operation in France or they will consider making an immediate application for a court order against the board.

Her action has been made possible by the case of Yvonne Watts, 72, from Bedford, south-east England.

Although Mrs Watts lost her case demanding the NHS pay for her French hip replacement operation because she had not waited long enough, the judge ruled that, in principle, other patients suffering "undue delay" could go abroad.

He said this applied even if their cases met NHS waiting list targets.

MP Jon Owen Jones says Mrs Court should be treated abroad

The principles set down in that ruling could open the NHS to further claims from patients who have been waiting long periods for operations.

Mr Jones said Mrs Court had now been waiting for an operation for two years and eight months, which was not good enough.

"She didn't see a consultant until eight months ago," he said.

"I can't see how anyone can say that Mrs Court hasn't been subjected to undue delay in which she's in pain and discomfort, and she should get treatment.

"We need the Department of Health in England and the Welsh Assembly Government to issue new guidance.