‘We must give the NHS more physios’

THERE are more than 60,000 hip replacements in the UK every year and most are routine, says Professor Farres Haddad, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at University College Hospital, London, who treated Lord Campbell.

‘It’s fairly neat and elegant surgery. The hip is dislocated and the head of the femur – the ball part of the ball and socket – is removed, about 2 to 3in of bone.

‘That gives us access to the socket – the acetabulum – which is cleared of abnormal cartilage. A titanium implant, with a coated surface that the bone will grow into, is inserted and tested to make sure it is stable and the right length. The muscles that have been split to allow access are reattached, the skin closed and a dressing applied.’

Lord Campbell recalls: ‘After my first operation I was in hospital for about five days, during which time I had two 20-minute

physiotherapy sessions. It’s very limited on the NHS so I arranged for someone to come to my home every day for a week at a cost of £60 a session, and was then able to continue the exercises on my own. Physiotherapy is one area in which the NHS is extremely busy and the staffing requirement ought to be increased.’

Earlier this year, he was shocked to learn that the rules on qualification for hip surgery on the NHS were to be tightened with patients scored using a questionnaire. Although the scheme was later rescinded, the number of hip replacements carried out on the NHS is at its lowest since 2000.

‘Rationing is not part of the NHS ethos,’ says Campbell. ‘Having had two hips replaced, four months apart, the quality of my life has been materially improved to an extent I wouldn’t have thought possible. Without the surgery, I’d have been stuck.’