A self-employed Wellington woman whose arthritis is so bad she cannot walk more than 5 steps, will spend $30 thousand of her retirement savings to have surgery done privately because she has been declined on the public list.
Andrea Clinton, who is in her mid 50s, had a pre-operation assessment at CCDHB last September and was told she would get her hip replacement within six months.
Now she's been told she does not meet the threshold and has to go back to the beginning again, and that her surgery would likely be within three months.
Ms Clinton takes morphine, codeine, panadol, anti-inflammatories and uses a crutch. The self employed hairdresser says she cannot continue and has decided to have the surgery done privately this week, at a cost of $30 thousand.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
