AN 80-year-old widow fed up with waiting for a NHS hip and knee operation will take out a loan to go private.

Joyce Pitt, (pictured) of Corporation Road, Newport, will see a private consultant at St Joseph's Hospital, Malpas, in January, to discuss an operation on her right hip and both knees.

Mrs Pitt has waited three years and four months to see a consultant under the NHS and expects to wait another three years for the operation.

By going private it should take just three months from the consultation to the operation. Mrs Pitt says she is taking the action, which means taking out a loan, because the local health trust cannot say when she will be seen by a consultant. She said: "My hip is so bad that I have a job to walk and my knees are bad. My doctor has x-rayed me and says both need to be done."

Mrs Pitt said she was first referred to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, to see a consultant in 1995.

More than 12 months later she tried to go back to see her consultant but found she had to be put on a waiting list.

She said: "My own doctor referred me again to hospital in August 1998. I had a letter saying I would be put on the list and it would be 87 weeks before an appointment. "Under those circumstances I didn't bother them but since April 2000 I have pestered them."

Mrs Pitt said her mobility was now deteriorating. "They have no idea when they would be able to give me the first consultation and then I'd have to wait for an operation.

"I decided I'd had enough and decided I'd have to go privately to have anything done," she added.

A Royal Gwent spokesman said: "We have received additional funding from the National Assembly. This is being used to carry out extra initiative operating sessions and does not significantly impact on our outpatient appointment waiting list.

"We are experiencing a high number of complex referrals and a substantial increase in the number of patients requiring revision operations of their hip and knee replacements. In many ways, the orthopaedic service is a victim of its own success.

"Patients are prioritised and that decision is made by the consultant. We have to treat emergency cases first and routine cases in strict order of clinical need."