Labour peer Bragg goes private for hip replacement

Blessed with a lustrous head of hair and a youthful complexion, Melvyn Bragg passes for a man much younger than his 78 years.

But now the eminent broadcaster is having to face up to the ageing process: he is due to undergo a hip operation today and says he’s ‘terrified’, as it’s one of the first times he’s had surgery.

The labour peer is having the operation privately amid reports the NHs is rationing hip and knee replacements to cut costs.

lord Bragg says getting older hasn’t worried him — until now.

‘Is this the first sign of getting old?’ he asks. ‘I’m having a hip operation this week and I’m petrified. It is a warning sign. I’ve never had an op before — not even my tonsils out — and I don’t do pain. I won’t take painkillers because I’m allergic, so I will have to deaden the agony with red wine.’

Bragg adds he is in a lot of pain and has been dragging his leg. The workaholic pensioner is also concerned about how long he will be off work.

Asked if he is using the NHs, he shakes his head and declines to say which private hospital he is attending. ‘I’d rather not say. I don’t want to get into this.’

The NHs has recently imposed restrictions on hip and knee replacements. Three in four health trusts are denying surgery to patients who are not in ‘enough’ pain to save money.

lord Bragg has praised the NHs in the past, saying in 2010: ‘There are always parts that people are complaining about. But look at what’s going on and it’s extraordinary.’ In 2007, he had eye surgery to remove a cataract, but declined to say whether he had it done on the NHs or privately.

Bragg, who presented ITV’s arts programme The south Bank show for more than 30 years, is amicably separated from his wife, author Cate Haste.

As part of the deal, he is understood to have shelled out several million pounds to buy her a home of her own in Hampstead, North london. After the couple split, lord Bragg was reported to have moved in with his mistress Gabriel Clare-Hunt.

‘I’ve been lucky up till now with my health, touch wood,’ he says. ‘I’ve got friends who have had the prostate problems and it can affect your sex life — at least I won’t have that to worry about.’