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NHS hospital chiefs have sparked fury by charging for ­operations that were free.

Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust offers new hips for £18,143 among a list of 71 costly private treatments.

Labour’s Jon Ashworth, right, said: “It really is a total disgrace.”

Desperate patients are being left in agony because they cannot afford the private operations on offer at an NHS trust that were once free.

Vital procedures such as hip and knee replacements cost up to £18,143, ­cataracts £2,368 and hernias £7,719, way outside most ordinary people’s budgets.

Patients will only get free treatment if they meet certain criteria, including how severe their ­condition is. It means many will have to wait in pain while they get worse before surgeons will act.

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust was accused of exploiting the sick after it advertised the operations.

It comes as Tory cuts have left the NHS rationing what it can carry out for free. WHH is thought to be the first trust to brazenly embrace privatisation of many services.

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The list of 71 ­treatments – ­recategorised as ­Procedures of Low Clinical Priority – has sparked fury, with 50 people protesting on Tuesday.

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This tells you everything you need to know about the Tory NHS.

“Squeeze funding, impose cutbacks, force greater rationing of treatments, grow waiting lists and then tell patients in agony they can pay if they have deep pockets.

"It is a total disgrace.” Keep Our NHS Public branded the move “nasty, as it is privatisation from within”.

Chair Tony O’Sullivan said: “There are many ways the tentacles of private ­interests envelope our health service. But this rationing of access to health care on the NHS is one of the most blatant ploys. It’s simply disgraceful.”

The Medical Technology Group, which monitors NHS rationing, called the private list “alarming”. It said 20 of the trust’s 71 procedures are those that were axed from free treatment when the NHS conducted a review last year.

Chair Barbara Harpham added: “Many, such as cataracts and hip and knee replacements are proven, ­evidence-led treatments that have been successfully used for decades. To classify them as ‘low clinical priority’ is unacceptable.”

Angela Walsh had a bunion removed on the NHS at the trust’s Warrington General Hospital 10 years ago but another one is now growing on her other foot.

And she has been told she can only have it ­operated on privately. She said: “The surgeon said it’s not bad enough yet, come back when it gets worse.”

The 53-year-old, who was among the protesters outside Halton Borough Council, fears she will be left in agony if it gets as bad as it did as before.

Child mental health worker Angela, from Widnes, Cheshire, said: “It became almost impossible to walk.

“Instead of a straight-forward removal it became a bigger ­operation. I left it so long other toes followed suit and they had to break and reset multiple bones.

“So this is going to end up being a huge operation as well. These are not cosmetic or ‘low priority’ procedures, they have a real impact on people’s lives.

(Image: Getty)

“The hospital doesn’t decide which procedures are available but they are capitalising on it.

Most people haven’t got the money to keep paying for these treatments that should be free.” WHH Trust advertised the My Choice private services on its website – alongside the NHS logo.

It argues it is just one of many major hospitals expanding the number of treatments it charges for.

Medical director Dr Alex Crowe wrote: “With the increasing number of ­procedures now classed as PLCPs we would like to offer your patients an affordable alternative should they be denied treatments on the NHS.

“We know how difficult it can be ­delivering the news to patients that the procedure they may once have been routinely offered is no longer available.”

It claimed patients using My Choice did not jump the queue. The website said: “They fill under-utilised capacity which, if unfilled, may be removed.”

Chief executive Mel Pickup said: “It is not the role of hospitals to determine which services are funded. This is the role of NHS commissioners.

“Procedures such as hip and knee replacements and cataract removal operations remain available on the NHS in the usual way if the criteria are met.”

The trust, which also covers Halton Hospital and the Cheshire and Merseyside ­Treatment Centre, insisted the money it charges goes back into the service to fund care.