The number of people waiting for a hip operation in Dumfries and Galloway has more than quadrupled in four years.
And the average wait for a procedure is now just short of a year.
The figures, revealed by Reform Scotland, have been described by the British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland as “shocking yet not surprising”.
Its chairman, Dr Iain Kennedy, said: “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.
“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. We are in a year-round crisis with our NHS and workforce planning is abysmal.”
The data, obtained through Freedom of Information requests by Reform Scotland, shows that on May 30 this year 321 people were waiting for a hip replacement in Dumfries and Galloway.
That’s nearly five times the figure in 2019 – the last year before the coronavirus pandemic – when 66 people were on the list.
Nationally, the figure has gone from just over 3,000 in 2019 to more than 10,000 in 2023, with NHS Dumfries and Galloway one of three health boards to have seen their waiting list more than triple.
The mean wait had also jumped in Dumfries and Galloway from 113 days in 2019 to 329 days in 2023 – but the report says the wait is likely to be “considerably longer” as the waiting time stats are based on the time between a surgeon agreeing on treatment and the operation taking place. It does not cover the patient’s initial visit to a doctor or their referral to secondary care.
The figures also show there were 418 hip operations carried out in 2022, down slightly from 452 in 2019.
The data reveals an increase in waits in orthopaedics in general. There were 1,477 people on the waiting list for an orthopaedic operation in Dumfries and Galloway in May this year, more than three times the 2019 figure of 453.
The mean wait had gone from 96 days to 249 days over that time, with the number of elective orthopaedic operations almost halving from 1,402 in 2019 to 743 in 2022.
An NHS Dumfries and Galloway spokesman said: “The data on the number of people awaiting hip operations looks at numbers from before the pandemic, in 2019, and the situation now where we have well-publicised backlogs of different procedures which result from the pandemic.
We recognise and appreciate there will be frustration at this situation, which we are continually working to address.
“We do work closely to the waiting times targets set by the Scottish Government, and our current performance is above the Scottish average.”
Reform Scotland director Chris Deerin has called for a “mature, constructive debate” to find ways to “help our health and care services in both the short and long term”.
He added: “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 in order to make the best use of the resources we have.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Long waits of this nature are unacceptable. We remain committed to eradicating long waits, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible.
“The First Minister has announced new annual funding of £100 million, subject to the budget process, to help reduce inpatient and day-case waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients over the next three years.
“We have met our targets to reduce waiting times of over two years in most specialities, with 83 per cent of outpatient specialities and 57 per cent of inpatient/day-case specialities now having fewer than 10 patients waiting more than two years. Waits of over 78 weeks have also reduced by 40.6 per cent for new outpatients since June 2022. This is welcome progress, but we know there is still more to do.”
NHS Dumfries and Galloway was approached for comment.
