\n The average wait was even longer at 270 days, almost nine months, although that was down from 355 days the previous year and 370 days in 2023\/24.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the lengthy waits, the scale of patients leaving NHS queues<\/a> to seek treatment elsewhere can now no longer be established nationally.\n<\/p>\n \n READ MORE:\n<\/p>\n \n PHS introduced a national code in July 2025 allowing health boards to record patients who come off waiting lists after seeking treatment outside the NHS.\n<\/p>\n \n However, only one NHS board is currently submitting patient records using the removal reason \u201cpatient sought treatment out with NHS\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n The FOI figures record no hip replacement waits removed for that reason in 2025\/26, but the limited use of the code means the figure cannot be treated as a Scotland-wide total.\n<\/p>\n \n The disclosure comes amid continuing pressure on elective surgery waiting lists.\n<\/p>\n \n There were 9,082 hip replacement admissions in Scotland during the 12 months to April 30, 2026.\n<\/p>\n \n At the end of that period, there were 8,537 ongoing waits for hip replacement procedures.\n<\/p>\n \n That was down from 9,548 a year earlier and 10,529 in April 2024.\n<\/p>\n \n The figures were obtained under Freedom of Information<\/a> laws by My Medical Gateway, a healthcare marketplace which connects UK patients with private hospitals in Europe.\n<\/p>\n \n PHS advises that the median is a more reliable measure of patients\u2019 experience than the mean because particularly long waits can push the average upwards.\n<\/p>\n \n The figures relate to waits covered by Scotland\u2019s 12-week treatment time guarantee after a decision to treat has been agreed.\n<\/p>\n \n PHS said waiting-time clocks can be adjusted in some circumstances, including periods when a patient is unavailable or unable to attend a booked appointment.\n<\/p>\n \n Sir Mark Worthington, who sits on My Medical Gateway\u2019s advisory panel, said: “While delayed treatment means more pain and loss of mobility for most patients, for many others it can also spell lost income, cancelled contracts and growing financial pressure.\n<\/p>\n \n “NHS waiting lists also have a big impact on the UK economy with thousands unable to do their bit to boost productivity until they have undergone surgery.\n<\/p>\n \n “It is encouraging to see the average waiting time for hip replacement surgery fall in Scotland, but an average wait of nine months is still a significant period for someone living with pain and reduced mobility.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cFor patients who are struggling to manage while waiting, the figures are likely to prompt questions about what alternatives are available to them.”\n<\/p>\n \n She added: “Private healthcare can offer a faster route to treatment for those who have the means or insurance to use it, although the cost of self-funding a hip replacement can be substantial.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThe important thing is that patients understand their options – including the likely waiting time, cost and what any private treatment package includes – before making a decision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n PHS cautioned that procedure-level waiting-time data submitted by NHS boards is not quality assured by professional clinical coders and that completeness varies between boards.\n<\/p>\n \n It said the national figures may therefore be an underestimate.\n<\/p>\n \n The analysis also includes waits and admissions for initial hip replacements, revisions to existing joint prostheses and some conversions from previous hip surgery.\n<\/p>\n \n Individual patients can also be counted more than once if they are waiting for more than one scheduled hospital appointment or admission.\n<\/p>\n \n Health Secretary Angela Constance said: \u201cOur plan is delivering, with long waits reducing, thousands more procedures and NHS Golden Jubilee now the largest hip and knee replacement centre in the UK, marking a major milestone in the delivery of orthopaedic care across NHS Scotland<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cI am determined to build on this momentum through our reform of NHS boards, which will remove current bureaucratic barriers and reduce variation in our NHS. This includes, for example, the delivery of a new National Orthopaedics Plan to improve access to orthopaedic services, and make best use of available capacity across Scotland.\n<\/p>\n \n “Patients are not removed from an NHS waiting list unless it is clinically appropriate to do so.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cPublic Health Scotland (PHS) acts independently from Ministers and is responsible for the publication of waiting list data, using statistics collected from NHS health boards and making impartial decisions over content and timing of releases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average wait was even longer at 270 days, almost nine months, although that was down from 355…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}