A kidney transplant patient was told she must wait three years to see a consultant about her back pain.

Valerie Paynter said she had been in agony and barely able to walk since she began to suffer chronic back pain two months ago.

She is unable to take pain killers in case they affect her kidneys.

The pain is so bad she is unable to walk far and has to order a taxi to take her the few hundred yards to and from her local shops.

Miss Paynter said her GP had referred her to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton for a scan.

But she was horrified when she was told there was a three-year wait to see a consultant for assessment before she could go on the list for a scan.

Miss Paynter, of The Drive, Hove, said: "I rang them and explained that I was an urgent case.

"They called back later and said the best they could do was an appointment two years from now.

"I said that was not good enough. The following day I received a letter reducing the wait to 75 weeks."

"The most insulting thing was they also sent a leaflet on how to deal with mild back pain.

"I am in excruciating pain, 24 hours a day.

"To be told I have to wait three years for treatment when I am clearly an emergency case is ridiculous. If I hadn't kicked up a stink and threatened them with The Argus, they would have left things as they were.

"The longer this goes on the more it is likely to affect my kidney and my long-term health."

She said there was an operation which had been pioneered in the US, which could reduce back pain waiting lists and costs.

She said: "It takes just 30 minutes under local anaesthetic and kills the nerves sending the pain signals from affected discs.

"It costs just £1,000 against £12,000 for a ten-day stay in hospital and a three-hour NHS operation.

"If they were to bring it in here, the NHS would save a fortune."

A spokesman for Brighton Health Care NHS Trust said: "We only have the funding to run one back pain clinic a week.

"We have been in discussion for some time with the Brighton and Hove Primary Care Group about it giving us extra funding for additional clinics and so far the issue has not been resolved.

"We have been able to pay for physiotherapy practitioners to assess people more quickly and are also looking at bringing in a chiropractor as well.

"As we are only able to hold one clinic a week, we have the situation where more people are coming on to the waiting list for the clinic than are coming off it."