Patients face agonising wait for hip and knee operations

THE shutdown of the NHS to cope with Covid-19 has led to nearly 300,000 people waiting in pain for crucial hip and knee operations, one of Britain’s leading orthopaedic surgeons has said.

Prof Phil Turner said the impact of diverting resources towards the pandemic had been devastating on patients. Waiting lists have mushroomed, with the elderly and vulnerable suffering more pain and isolation and facing longer recovery periods as a result.

The latest figures show that by June, waiting lists in England for routine orthopaedic procedures such as hip replacements had grown to 277,000 people waiting for more than 18 weeks, with 11,000 of those having waited for more than a year.

That was up from a total of around 100,000 in February.

In June 2019, there were 47,685 elective orthopaedic procedures carried out in England. In June this year there were only 7,433 – just 16 per cent of normal activity.

But Prof Turner warned there has also been an invisible cost in terms of human misery.

“On top of that there is the huge hidden problem of patients not being referred to us because of the impact of the pandemic. Referrals are down 50 per cent from normal levels,” he said.

“This was because the NHS’s resources were directed towards the pandemic, which was right at the time.

“Unfortunately the NHS had no choice but to focus everything on

Covid because it was already running at full capacity due to years of efficiencies and would otherwise have simply not coped. But it now means we have all these patients stacked up waiting for treatment.”

Prof Turner, who is the senior orthopaedic surgeon at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, added: “We have managed to carry on providing services to patients with trauma, such as fractured bones and hips. So if you break your leg falling out of the pub on a Saturday night you will have been treated during the pandemic. But everything else other than the highest priority – such as patients with cancer or infections – just stopped. Routine work just came to a halt.”

He warned that tackling the country’s long waiting lists would be no quick or easy task.

“It’s taking a long time to get the restart of the NHS going. Hospitals are still geared up for Covid, with 40 per cent less theatre space because of distancing and PPE protocols,” he said.

“It is going to take a long time to get back to even the February 2020 waiting list levels – perhaps two years – let alone cutting lists to less than 100,000.”

277,000

People have been waiting for more than 18 weeks for routine orthopaedic procedures such as hip replacements