A TOP DOCTOR has condemned the way some knee and hip operations are administered at Southampton General Hospital.

Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the British Medical Association's Consultants' Committee, has publicly criticised the way ortho-paedic operations are sometimes transferred from the NHS to a new independent sector treatment centre (ISTC).

He said this had led to a closure of a ward at the hospital and staff redundancies.

"Unsurprisingly, it now seems that some (patients) are unsuitable and too complex for the ISTC.

"However, the NHS unit is no longer available, so they are in limbo, allegedly being sent all over the place and do not even appear on any published waiting list."

Dr Miller made the comments after Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt pledged to press ahead with new health service reforms, with private and independent sector providers being used more to help bring down waiting lists.

However, the British Medical Association has warned that the policy will lead to poorer standards of patient care.

The ISTCs are being introduced across the country to carry out procedures such as cataract operations and hip and knee replacements.

Unions and doctors argue they are creating an unfair playing field between traditional NHS and new independent providers which receive more funding per patient.

Dr Miller added he had yet to be convinced about the ISTC's out-of- hours emergency cover or the clinical quality of doctors employed.

A Department of Health spokes-man said the extra capacity provided by ISTCs was helping to improve patient choice.

He said: "It is also providing faster access to surgery for which there is high demand. All this is free at the point of care - the founding principle of the NHS."

The spokesman said quality of care at treatment centres was paramount and all staff had to have appropriate qualifications.

The spokesman added that no wards had been closed in Southampton as a result of the ISTC programme.

"Separately, there has been a planned local reconfiguration of trauma services, resulting in a reduction in beds, but this has nothing to do with the ISTC provision in the area," he said.

"The BMA appears to be confusing two separate programmes to improve local services for NHS patients."