A PENSIONER from Pontllanfraith is still waiting in agony for a hip replacement operation - a year after we first revealed her story.

Dorothy Meats, 78, says the hospital had told her it would probably be January at least before she could undergo the much-needed surgery, but now she has been classed as an urgent case, and should be seen by the end of the year.

Mrs Meats, who is a widow and virtually housebound, told the Argus in September last year that she had been informed she could have to wait up to three years for an outpatient appointment with a specialist.

She said she eventually paid more than £100 to see a consultant privately, at St Joseph's in Newport, at the beginning of this year.

Mrs Meats was then placed on a waiting-list for the operation at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, but has still not been given a date for surgery. She began having problems with her right hip around three years ago.

The hip is crumbling and one of her legs is shorter than the other. She is unable to walk far because of the pain and she cannot go out alone. She has no immediate family in the area and relies on a neighbour to do her shopping.

"I can't go anywhere on my own because my hip gives out and I fall," she said.

"I have got two Zimmers - one upstairs and the other downstairs - and my daughter says I should have a stair- lift."

Despite being in constant pain, Mrs Meats is brave.

"I suppose I am waiting but a lot of other people are waiting a long time as well," she said.

A spokesman for the Royal Gwent Hospital said figures from June showed no orthopaedic patients had been waiting longer than 18 months.

Ninety-nine patients had been waiting between 16 and 18 months, and 368 had been waiting between 13 and 15 months.

He said steps to cut the orthopaedic waiting-list included a new system of asking patients to give convenient dates for their operations - and this had been effective in cutting the number of patients not attending their appointments.