The mother of Bristol Evening Post crime reporter, Julie Harding is taking the Government to the High Court because it is refusing to let her go to France for an NHS-funded hip replacement. Here Julie tells of the battle to give her mother the chance to lead a normal life again.

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It is horrible to see someone you love in pain.

You will do anything you can to ease their suffering.

Which is why I decided to fight the NHS for my mother’s right to have a hip replacement operation in France.

Last summer, my mum, Yvonne Watts, was an active 71-year-old, enjoying life, going on holiday and playing with her grandchildren.

Now even the simplest household task takes a Herculean effort.

Climbing the stairs is so arduous, we have had to have a downstairs loo installed.

She went to her GP when she first had difficulty walking in August and he told her it was arthritis, it was a condition of old age and she would have to live with it.

Suffering increasing daily pain she returned to the surgery and he referred her to a consultant.

The first bombshell came when we were told that there was a waiting list to join the waiting list. The consultant could not see her for 19 weeks – unless we coughed up £200.

Mum paid up and saw him within three weeks. He dropped the second bombshell – mum would have to wait for a year for her operation on the NHS at Bedford General Hospital.

But he did say he could do it next week if she could find £8,000.

This is the average cost of a hip operation at a private hospital in England, exactly double the average cost of a new hip on the NHS.

Then I remembered reading about primary care trusts (they used to be called health authorities) on the south coast who were sending patients to France and Germany for hip and eye operations on the NHS.

These pilot schemes were so successful both in treatment of patients and in cutting waiting times here, that the Government issued guidelines for other trusts who want to do the same.

My mother lives in Bedford and, unfortunately, Bedford Primary Care Trust is refusing to send patients abroad. Instead it is spending £6,000 a time on hip operations for patients who have waited a long time in a bid to reduce its excessive waiting list.

My mum’s only option was to apply for an E112 certificate – the same as an E111 you use if you need treatment on holiday except it refers to pre-planned treatment. Hilary Laughton, the assistant director of commissioning at Bedford PCT had not heard of the E112 certificate scheme when I first contacted her and has since refused to allow my mother to have one.

Not to be beaten, I checked the law on this and found that the European Court of Justice ruled last year that people in the EU have a basic right to treatment in any other EU country.

They must first ask permission, as we did, but the judge said that “authorisation can only be refused, on medical grounds, if the same or equally effective treatment can be provided (in the home state) WITHOUT UNDUE DELAY”.

Armed with this information I went to Bristol solicitor David Burrows who thought we had a good case and fired off a letter to Bedford Primary Care Trust.

The trust has dug its heels in saying that its definition of undue delay is anything over the Government’s target waiting time for in-patient treatment of 12 months.

MP Frank Field has been campaigning on this issue for two years and I contacted his office to see if he could help. Luckily his staff had heard of a top London firm of solicitors who were handling similar cases and they are now representing my mum.

They are challenging the trust’s decision not to fund the operation by a judicial review in the High Court.

The judge must define undue delay. If he or she finds that a year is too long to wait, it could have far reaching consequences. Everyone in my mum’s position could apply to be treated abroad, saving the NHS millions and reducing the waiting lists here.

If we lose then my mum will still get her operation in France at a cost of £3,900. I will remortgage my house rather than see her in pain for another 10 months.

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