Facts: Ms Watts had to wait for one year for hip replacement surgery in England, subsequently reduced to three to four months. Consequently, Ms Watts secured treatment in France and claimed reimbursement of the cost under Council Regulation 1408/71.

Judgment: the European Court of Justice held that a patient could, pursuant to Article 22 of Council Regulation 1408/71, go to another member state to receive medical treatment and be reimbursed the cost where there would, on an objective medical assessment of his medical circumstances, be an unacceptable delay before treatment could be provided in the UK by reason of waiting lists intended to enable the supply of hospital care to be planned and managed on the basis of predetermined clinical priorities, and where there had been no such objective medical assessment of the patient’s condition.