Freda Wynne is waiting for an operation at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital in Shropshire.

The letter states she will have to wait longer

"In a letter that I received from the hospital it said that if I lived in Shropshire then I would've had the operation done quicker," she said.

A spokesman for the hospital has denied that Welsh patients are being made to wait longer.

However, its Medical Director Josh Dixey confirmed that an investment shortage from the Welsh Assembly has resulted in what he calls "the unacceptable situation" that patients from Wales have to wait longer for surgery than those from England.

Mrs Wynne, who is 69, said she is being treated unfairly.

"I believe that because I am Welsh there is no chance.

"I keep ringing up and asking if there's any more news and the last time I rang they said my consultant's lists were full until September but he was tied to who he could and couldn't put on his list anyway."

The grandmother's claims have been backed up by a Powys GP.

The doctor received a letter from a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital in Gobowen saying the hospital have told him not to operate on any patients from Wales because of the cash problem.

We've always lived in Wales and I've always been proud of being Welsh but we pay our national health and we are being penalised

Freda Wynne

Mrs Wynne received a back operation at the Shropshire hospital five years ago and had a hip replacement 12 months later.

She said she has been on the waiting list much longer this time around.

"In January this year I was told that I urgently needed these operations but unfortunately he [the consultant] couldn't do anything because there was no money.

"I even said to the admissions clerk that I would write to one of the newspapers in Shropshire and ask anyone there if they would like to adopt a Granny and then I'd have a Shropshire address.

"We've always lived in Wales and I've always been proud of being Welsh but we pay our national health and we are being penalised."

Mrs Wynne said waiting for the operation has changed her life and she is no longer able to leave her home for long periods of time.

She could transfer to see a consultant at Wrexham Maelor Hospital but she does not want to start at the beginning of another waiting list.

She has now passed on her concerns to a Wrexham GP who has told her he will write to the Welsh Assembly on her behalf.

Meetings have been arranged between the Department of Health and Welsh Assembly Government officials to address the problem.