Yvonne Watts, 72, has been told she will have to wait at least a year for a hip operation despite being in constant pain and having to use a wheelchair.

She is suffering, she is in pain everyday Julie Harding

But in what would be the first legal case of its kind, she is challenging that decision using new EU regulations.

Under an EU Justice ruling last year, people have the right to seek treatment in other EU countries if they are facing an undue delay.

Mrs Watts' lawyers are arguing one year is an undue delay, and that she is therefore entitled to go abroad for treatment.

However, Bedford Primary Care Trust says one year does not count as an undue delay under Department of Health guidelines.

French hospital

The reality is that people are not able to receive surgery within weeks of presenting themselves to either a GP or a consultant Margaret Stockham

Mrs Watts' daughter Julie Harding has spoken to a consultant at La Louviere hospital in Lille, France, who has confirmed the operation can be done within two weeks.

Mrs Harding says she will travel with her mother to see the consultant in January regardless of whether they are given the go-ahead from the local trust.

If necessary, she says she will re-mortgage her house to pay for the treatment privately.

The cost of treatment in France is estimated at around �4,000 - no more than it would cost on the NHS.

Mrs Harding said her mother had lost her independence as a result of her condition.

"She is suffering, she is in pain everyday. It is a struggle to get up, it is a struggle to have a wash in the morning, it is a struggle to get up and down the stairs.

"I cannot bear to see her in pain to next October."

Why wait?

Last year 1,100 NHS patients were sent abroad for treatment under the new rules.

Richard Stein, the lawyer handling the case, said: "The basis of the European Union is to provide an equality of service across member states.

"We should all be asking the question why, if in France you have a hip that needs replacing you can have it done next week, should people in this country have to wait a year?

"There is excess capacity there, and it must be right that people in this country should not have to put up with intolerable delays."

Margaret Stockham, chief executive of Bedford Primary Care Trust, told the BBC that the trust was sticking to its position that Mrs Watts did not qualify for foreign treatment because she had been told she would not have to wait for more than a year for an operation on the NHS.

Mrs Watts had been categorised as a routine, rather than an urgent patient.

She said: "We have made a decision based on the rules and regulations of this country, and with advice from the Department of Health.

"We have sympathy for Mrs Watts and every patient that has to wait for surgery, but the reality is that people are not able to receive surgery within weeks of presenting themselves to either a GP or a consultant.

"Therefore there has to be some orderly system of making sure that patents are treated in turn and in appropriate priority order."

A Health Department spokeswoman said the department could not comment on individual cases but the time a patient spent on a waiting list depended on the priority allocated to them by doctors.

She said: "The maximum time that a patient should wait for inpatient treatment is currently 15 months - in line with the NHS Plan.

"However, from April next year this will be reduced to 12 months."