NHS Waiting Lists - A work of fiction

[PrettyFedUp2025]

AIBU to be dismayed to learn the waiting list for an 'URGENT' hip replacement on the NHS (including subcontracting to private hospitals) is 1 year or longer in our local authority area?

To discover the published waiting times on the NHS 'My Planned Care App' are in reality a total work of fiction, despite each Hospital Trust or ICB supposed to be updating the lists weekly.

The only way to manage this sudden onset debilitating condition (bone on bone) has been to give up work and exist on benefits, which if totalled up for the year long wait are tripple the cost of immediate surgery with a surgeon at a private hospital.

What a waste of taxpayer's money.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. I'm dealing with something similar but not as extreme as a hip replacement.

I've had surgery on a broken hand and plates inserted. It's my dominant hand. After experiencing lots of pain and being off work for a prolonged period, the conclusion is that the plates need to be removed as they're causing more issues. I'm dismayed to find that this is now classed as 'elective' non urgent surgery! 3-6 month wait.

Luckily, I have private health insurance through work. After seeing the same consultant, my op is in a few weeks from now. Whilst I'm glad, I feel like I'm cheating.

The NHS is on its arse!

Saw on another thread that someone has been waiting 11 years for a knee replacement.
I know someone who has been waiting six years for the same procedure.

My DH is waiting for urgent plate removal in his skull as they keep getting infected. He's now been waiting for 28 months. He had a pre-op last April.
He'll be dead before they get round to it.

Uncle is waiting 8 months for cancer surgery. It really is a mess.

Nothing in your post indicates that the waiting list times are "a work of fiction" ie incorrect, made up, that kind of thing.

It's true that the waiting list is appalling but the waiting list does not seem to me, in any way to be a work of fiction

Fucking hell!! Sorry dont know what else to say

@Redrosesposies so sorry! My bone is infected too! I can't believe he's been left to wait this long! The fact that I was able to be seen privately and saw the same consultant, made me feel a bit sick! My thoughts are with you both!

The hospital with a 1yr wait for surgery, currently has 25 weeks wait published wait between seeing a consultant and surgery. Never mind the fact this operation is deemed urgent.

My GP has access to information re waiting times at relevant hospitals across the Trust and agrees the reality is very different to published list on 'my planned care'

I'm sorry so many that have commented are in the same or worse situation. Seems like a real postcode lottery as well.

I'm so sorry this is dreadful. Is there anything you can do to speed this up?

I’m against the norm, my daughter waited 5 days for her operation! Although initial appointment was an 11 week wait.

My 1st op was the following day. It was classed as an urgent trauma case. The second one is classed as semi elective, so I think it depends on the type of surgery!

I agree though, it's a total lottery and the urgency of the treatment doesn't always tie in with the severity of the illness!

No urgency, surgeon just had a space and wanted it filled. It is a complete lottery though.

We used to have the option of Choose and Book, where you could opt to go somewhere else if the wait was shorter, but that seems to have gone now.

If they have been waiting that long it is because the consultant did not think they needed one 11 years ago. It is common for consultants to say someone will need a knee replacement at some point. It does not mean they would get one yet, even if there was no waiting list.

OP phone up and tell the secretary you will take any cancellations no matter how last minute. Operations get cancelled because people are ill for example, but they might only let the hospital know the afternoon before. Everyone I know who has done this has had their operation much quicker.

Consider yourself lucky you don’t live in NI! 1 year would be considered a miraculously short wait - it’s more like 5 years+ here. I work in a private hospital nowadays (spent 20 years in the NHS beforehand) and the amount of patients I see having to take out loans that they can’t really afford or use their life’s savings to fund a £15k hip replacement is scandalous. These people are being forced into debt as it is their only hope of getting out of pain in a timely manner.

Thanks for suggestion, but I've already done this, telling waiting list manager I could be there within 30 minutes. Would have to get a taxi if OH at work as can no longer drive due to hip situation. I also don't eat breakfast until lunch time so could have the advantage of being 'nil by mouth'. My overnight bag is already packed and currently avoiding seeing family/friends that may have snuffles etc.

Life is just totally on hold and could be for another 12mths and so many of us in same situation waiting with no updates.

Postcode lottery is right.

I've clearly been very lucky because in the last three years I've had NHS cancer surgery - waiting time 21 days, and then chemo & radiotherapy completed in the following 12 weeks.

And then an unrelated removal of an ovary, elective day case, waited 14 weeks.

@PrettyFedUp2025 Hopefully your operation will happen much much sooner then.

It doesn't often work pragmatically. You need to be nil by mouth, you need pre-op checks, you need to wash with antibac for up to a week before the surgery...

I am waiting for a hernia operation, I've been told waiting lists are over a year, the Government wonder why anxiety and depression PIP applications are on the rise

I am often wondering what those waiting lists are actually based on and I mean all waiting lists in general. The NHS is one of the world's largest employers. As of Feb 2024, it employed 1.34M people! Its budget is nearly 200B but none of it ever seems enough! I know it's hard to imagine what 200B is but this would equate to nearly £3,000 for every single person in the country. Now, if you imagine that the majority of people are not ill and do not constantly require operations or serious treatments, there is a question as to where all money actually goes. Every single government tells us that it is their priority to sort out the NHS, to cut down the waiting lists and to improve hospital performance but not a single government has actually managed to delivery any such thing as the NHS still seems to be falling apart.

I recently had to go to A&E and the average waiting time was over 8 hours. One lady in the waiting room actually collapsed and even that only meant that a nurse came out to take a look at her but she still had to continue waiting her turn in the waiting area because presumably the nurse decided that collapsing didn't constitute an emergency! I do appreciate that many people go to A&E for matters which are neither accident, nor emergency but surely nobody goes there for fun and if there were alternatives, then they wouldn't come to A&E!

The only service that you can get on the NHS without any waiting seems to be vaccination of every kind. That can be delivered pretty much instantly to anyone. Beyond that, there are no ambulances, no surgeries and no other serious treatments which can be delivered without waiting for at least 3 months and yet the NHS needs more and more money every single year!

A huge amount of the cash is taken up with wages, IT infrastructure (which is pitiful) and estates management / renovation. Sadly there's not much left for helping people feel better

some of the waiting lists do seem a bit fictional!

I was sent for a cardiology test, and there was an appointment given shortly after the referral - for a year from now, a placeholder appointment that said it wasn't for me to attend, and that I'd be sent a time in due course. Because I had that appointment, nothing ever showed up in the 'referrals' section of my NHS app (so I never got to consider any other locations), nor in the waiting list section - which makes me think it was done somehow to bypass the normal statistics. I wasn't 'on' a waiting list because of it. I suppose it didn't get round the statistics around the time to appointment, but it might have reduced the size of the apparent waiting list. They grade the hospitals on whether they get most of these done in 6 weeks. mine eventually appointment was about 16 weeks i think.

So in that sense, they are a bit fictional. Also the myPlannedCare figures are really general - for orthopaedics, for example, it covers every type of elective surgery, from super quick ones to hip replacements. It's so general as to be really unhelpful in actually giving you an idea about your waiting time. I would much rather know a realistic time for types of procedures - not every single one listed separately, but somewhat more categorised than it is at the moment. Even if the wait is long, it's better to know.

However I have had some good luck in getting cancellation slots, even for surgery. Not on the day, but sometimes with only a few days notice. And for other tests or appointments, sometimes phoned just the day before.

@ticktock19 A huge amount of the cash is taken up with wages, IT infrastructure (which is pitiful) and estates management / renovation.

I agree with that and I also think that a lot of it is mismanaged and spent irrationally, i.e. in a way that people wouldn't spend money if it was their personal budget or business. I think there are a lot of private companies involved in managing XYZ for the NHS and obviously they are all looking at how to maximise their profits rather than how to deliver the best service in the most rational way. We are often told that it's a public service but the only thing that's public about it seems to be the taxpayers' money. A lot of the NHS work is outsourced or contracted out to private companies, who seem to believe that the taxpayers' money is a bottomless pit for them to dip into. We need a fundamental reform of the NHS but because we have governments most of which don't really last, they aren't really interested in any proper transformation that would fix the issues. All they care about is electoral slogans that would get them in power and that is all.