Arran residents are waiting three times longer for a hip operation than they did five years ago, research released by Reform Scotland has found.
The research reveals sharply rising waiting lists and times for orthopaedic procedures in Scotland’s hospitals. Freedom of Information requests to health boards obtained comparable figures on waiting lists and times in orthopaedics and specific data for hip operations.
The paper also marks the launch of a major Reform Scotland research programme that will explore the changes required if the struggling NHS is to reach its 2048 centenary in better health.
Dr Iain Kennedy, chairman of BMA Scotland, said: “It is a system bursting at the seams, with a workforce running on empty. There are not enough of us to give our patients the time and care they need and deserve. The time for platitudes has long passed. We need action and we need it now.”
The research reveals the waiting list for a hip operation has more than tripled since 2019 in six health boards: Ayrshire and Arran, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Grampian, Lothian and Tayside.
Specific figures for Ayrshire and Arran show that in 2019 there were 248 people on the waiting list for a hip replacement. That had jumped to 772 by May this year.
The wait for an othopaedic operation has jumped from 98 days in 2019 to 291 in 2023 – a 197 per cent increase with numbers increasing from 1,209, in 2019, to 3,006, in 2023 – a 249 per cent increase.
Nationally, more than 10,000 people are on the waiting list for a hip operation, up from just over 3,000 in 2019.
While the increase in waiting times is deeply worrying, waiting times data only covers the point from when a decision to treat was made. As a result, patients will in reality be waiting far longer. There is further data on orthopaedic operations in general, showing around 45,000 on a waiting list.
Reform Scotland, a non-partisan think tank, is calling for an open, constructive and mature conversation about improving the NHS in time for its centenary and has been joined in that call by Dr Kennedy.
He said: “The figures in this report from Reform Scotland are shocking, yet not surprising. BMA Scotland has been warning for some time that the NHS in Scotland simply cannot deliver what is expected of it under its current limitation.”
Chris Deerin, director of Reform Scotland, said: “We need a mature, constructive debate to identify and build consensus around specific measures that will help our health and care services in the short and long term.
“If we are to maintain a taxpayer-funded, free-at-the-point-of-need system up to the NHS’s centenary in 2048, reform is required to make the best use of the resources we have. Reform Scotland will provide a platform for that discussion to take place.”