How long are people having to wait for hip/knee replacements ?

Hi Elaine, I guess you are in the UK and having an operation under the NHS. As always "It All Depends" but I will give you my experience although it may be seen as unusual. I first went to see my GP in june of last year and was promised to be put on the dreaded waiting list but told it might take a year or more. In August I got rather fed up and started to look to a private clinic including those overseas - and when I mentioned this to my doctor things went into high gear and I almost immediately received a phone call from my local health trust offering a meeting with a surgeon within a week. This happened at the beginning of September and I was quickly put on the short list. Only a week or so before christmas the phone rang offering an operation in a private hospital funded completely by the NHS, and I had my hip replaced on the 20th December. So you could say I had waited for just five months. I would suggest the secret is to research having your op done overseas, then worry your doctor with the news and get him to give it priority.

hello Elaine

i live in the south west of england and it does depend where you live i think as to how quickly you get in.

i had a pre op assessment on 15 th june after completing the choose and book form.

after my assessment i asked the nurse how long i could wait and she said the assessment stands for three months so with the month from being referred that was four months.

On 26 th july i had a phone call as they had a cancellation and could i come in for the op on 31 st july .

i did and its ten days post op now .

i didnt put any dates down when i wasnt available so i think thats why i was offered the cancellation , but not long to worry about it .

Hi I had left hip done 04/01/18 waited 2 weeks

right hip 6/01/19 again two weeks from seeing consultant.

that's in north east Lincolnshire

Well that's brilliant! I'm just wondering what it is like in the rest of the UK. Glad it worked out well for you.

Hi Elaine

As other posters have already said, it pretty much depends on where you are located. If you are happy to do so, I suggest that you let the forum know where you are based and someone might have gone through the system in your area.

I confess that I have been rather surprised with the fact that the process seems to differ quite a lot depending on where you are!

I'm in West Sussex and my experience with my first hip was very good. I only had to wait 5 weeks from the time I saw the surgeon to the actual date of the op (this was in 2016).

I had my second hip done the following year and had to wait about 3 months.

In my experience, ignore the surgeon when they say it will only be x amount of weeks cos they don't actually do the scheduling!

I can't quite remember how now, but I found the phone number for the Admissions Dept and contacted them directly. In fact through out the whole process I found that being proactive help to speed things up.

it's amazing how differently the different trust operate. i was told by my doctor that I needed a replacement in Dec 2017. The X ray to confirm the diagnosis took 4 weeks before the results filtered back. There was then a compulsory period of physio at the hospital even though the doctor said it would be pointless. After 6 weeks of physio, I was then told I needed an appointment to be assessed by a ' gatekeeper' before I could have an appointment with the consultant. i had to wait several months before an appointment became available. He didn't examine me, or have access to my X ray, but took me through the same questionnaire that I had been given both before and after physio, and told me I needed a replacement. I then had to wait for consultant's appointment, and the operation finally in DEC 2019 - one year later. Good luck

Elaine,

No one can give you a time line on having a hip op. It depends on your health authority, your surgeon, your health.

After waiting about eight months to see the consultant, from the GP writing to the hospital, things moved fairly quickly for me and had hip op within eight weeks.

hi. yes it does seem to vary from area to area. I waited 5 months in total .

seen by my GP in jan hosp appt in feb .put on the urgent waiting list as my hip had "shot it" according to the surgeon. told then wait time anything from 16-20 weeks which it ended up being.

my area does have choose and book as well where I could've had the OP at the local private hospital but - I didn't fit their criteria as BMI higher than they wanted - they cream off the fit and well leaving the NHS to do the rest- but tbh as a retired nurse I'd always sd I'd have any op in a NHS establishment as if anything goes wrong everyones on site as opposed to the private having to ring for ambulance to get me to nearest hosp ( unless private wing within NHS hospital ) .

In UK I think the waiting time is getting worse day by day. The news today said 4.4 million people are on the waiting list for ops. It does vary from area to area for all sorts of reasons, the standard waiting time was maximum 18 weeks, but I think that has been thrown out of the window nowadays. I had to get funding approved in my area and also an orthopaedic surgeon had to agree to put me on the waiting list. BMI seems to play a part nowadays. It is worth getting a first class surgeon in my opinion rather than trying to reduce the waiting time with someone not so good.

Elaine

I had mine done through bupa in Brighton . I'm from NIreland and my mother had hers done through NHS and had to wait a year to see a surgeon alone and then another 4 months wait to get surgery done . As I was working In Brighton area it was simpler to get it done there and after researching a surgeon in a specific field I had my MRI, a cortesone injection just to see if it would alleviate the pain which it did and after it wore off in 6 weeks I went back and was booked in 3 weeks later . This was more to give work time to get a replacement than anything. I could not fault the service.