MORE than 100 East Lancashire patients will have hip or knee replacement operations brought forward thanks to a new government deal.

The NHS today announced a £75million deal with two private healthcare providers.

Patients across Lancashire and Cumbria will have operations at the Nuffield Private Hospital in Lancaster.

Individual Primary Care Trusts will decide which patients are eligible for the treatment, and this will depend on a number of issues, including whether they are willing to travel to Lancaster and well enough to make the journey.

In Blackburn with Darwen 18 patients will have hip operations and 17 knee; In Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale there will be 22 hip and 27 knee and in Hyndburn and Ribble Valley 13 and 12 respectively. Operations will begin next month.

In East Lancashire 2,492 were waiting for orthopaedic surgery, which includes hip and knee replacement operations, at the end of March. Maximum waiting time for orthopaedics was eight months.

Across the country 25,000 people will be treated under this scheme.

Pearse Butler, chief executive of the Strategic Health Authority, said: "Many people waiting for hip and knee replacements are older and find their independence and freedom reduced. It is unacceptable that anyone should live with pain with mobility curtailed longer than necessary, and we are very pleased the government has funded private treatment for them."

The £75million has been split among all 28 Strategic Health Authorities in a bid to reduce the number of patients waiting for surgery.

Health Secretary John Reid said: "This is great news for thousands of NHS patients across the whole of the country.

"Although the NHS is expanding fast, it is currently not able to deliver this work as quickly as patients need these operations. I am determined no NHS patient should wait in pain where we can negotiate cost-effective agreements ."