NHS patients treated by a private clinic in a bid to cut waiting lists have been left in a legal situation which was today described as "scandalous".

Last year, the NHS contracted the privately-owned Birkdale Clinic to carry out operations on 210 patients to make sure it hit the Government's 18-week waiting time target in Leicestershire.

A little over two months into the contract, the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust halted the operations because of concerns over clinical quality.

It has now emerged that neither the NHS nor the Birkdale Clinic will accept liability for any problems resulting from the operations, which might leave patients with no legal recourse other than to try to sue individual surgeons.

The issue has been brought to light by the case of 63-year-old Tony Painter. He had a replacement knee operation carried out by Birkdale at Glenfield Hospital last year to ease arthritis.

But he claims he suffered nerve damage and complications after the surgery.

Mr Painter, of Upper Bruntingthorpe, had a second knee replacement in October last year and has been told he now needs a third.

He said: "I agreed to having my knee replaced by the Birkdale Clinic as part of an NHS waiting list initiative so that I wouldn't have to wait long to get back to work.

"Instead of curing the problem, I am now in constant pain and have been unable to go back to work. It has had a profound effect on my life."

Dr Darren Conway, of Leicester solicitors Freeth Cartwright, is representing Mr Painter, who is seeking compensation.

"The position that Mr Painter and other patients who find themselves in is a scandal," he said. "Normally, NHS patients benefit from being able to claim compensation from the NHS when things go wrong.

"Our investigations reveal that the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust entered into a private arrangement with the Birkdale Clinic without Government approval so patients it referred to the clinic under the waiting list initiative lost their NHS cover."

He added: "As the clinic claims the trust breached the contract and that it does not actually employ any surgeons, patients who say their operations went wrong have to trace and sue each individual doctor concerned."

A spokeswoman for Leicester's hospitals said: "The contract with the Birkdale Clinic spelt out where liability would rest in the event of a negligence claim and that was with the clinic.

"Any patient who wishes to make a claim for compensation following their treatment by the Birkdale Clinic should contact the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

"We will then work with the NHS Litigation Authority to resolve any claims."

She added the Birkdale Clinic was a Department of Health-approved provider and so the trust did not need approval for the contract.

In a letter to Freeth Cartwright, the Birkdale Clinic said the consultant who operated on Mr Painter was "engaged on an independent basis, and Birkdale Clinic are not therefore responsible for any surgery performed" by him on January 12, 2008, the day of Mr Painter's operation.

The company also said, in the letter, that the terms of its contract had been breached by the hospitals trust "and you cannot therefore rely upon the contract being in favour of the trust as suggested".

Birkdale chief executive Promod Bhatnagar told the Leicester Mercury that all the patient records were held at Leicester's hospitals "as they took over the care of patients without agreement of either the surgeons who operated, or Birkdale management".

He added: "Because Leicester's hospitals haven't given us the records, we can't answer patients' complaints or queries and have to direct them to the hospital."