MSG refuses to discuss how to help with hip op

GUERNSEY'S medical specialists have refused to discuss whether they should pay for an OAP to have an operation in the UK after they bungled her case.

'Despite this issue now being in the public domain, it is against the MSG's policy to discuss individual patients with, or through, the media,' a spokesman said.

He was responding to a suggestion by the Guernsey Press that it was unfair for 79-year-old Sheila Kendal's family to fund the cost of a private hip replacement after the MSG failed to provide the treatment she needed.

The group apologised to Mrs Kendal after it could not organise successfully an operation to repair her broken artificial hip.

Mrs Kendal sustained the injury in August and had to endure the cancellation of a planned operation on three separate occasions before her surgeon acknowledged that it would be better if she was sent to the UK for treatment.

Her daughter was disgusted that, four months after the hip broke, her mother was still in agony and without a set operation date. She has offered to pay for her to be seen privately in the UK.

The Guernsey Press asked the MSG what measures it would take to remedy the situation. Would it, for example, consider helping towards the approximate £8,900 it would cost for Mrs Kendal to go private?

But the group would not answer those questions.