More than 1,500 orthopaedics patients on waiting list for over two years

Then 71, Mr McCallum had always kept himself very fit and was initially advised to manage the condition with painkillers before being referred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary's orthopaedics department six months later in October.

There, his consultant decided it was time to add him to the waiting list for a hip replacement.

"He confirmed that my severe pain was basically bone on bone," said Mr McCallum, now 73.

"I was never indicated a date, but told there was a waiting list.

"I received a phone call every three months, asking if I wanted to remain on the waiting list.

"Then Covid came and we all knew that the waiting times were now on hold at best."

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At the time, Mr McCallum and his wife helped to look after their one-year-old grandson, but it was becoming more and more of a struggle.

"I was becoming less and less able to lift or walk him," said Mr McCallum.

"This together with my loss of active hobbies, had started to dampen my spirits."

With no date in sight for his operation on the NHS, it was his wife who finally decided that "enough is enough" and insisted that they pay for the surgery privately instead.

"The cost would be £12,500 - we would be taking out a three-year loan" said Mr McCallum, who underwent the procedure at BMI's Ross Hall hospital in Glasgow in November 2020 - just two weeks after his first consultation at the private facility.

His new hip has left him feeling "born again" - able to play with his grandson and resume his favourite hobbies - but he is angry that it came down to money.

"I had a choice of becoming an old man, or going private," said Mr McCallum.

"Having supported the NHS all my working life, you can imagine my disgust."

Between December 2019 and December 2021, the number of people on the orthopaedics waiting list in Scotland soared by 77 per cent - from 20,777 to 36,746.

By the end of December 2021, more than 9000 had been waiting over a year and, of these patients, 1,547 had been waiting over two years.

Julie Johnston, a married mother-of-three from Baillieston in Glasgow, is one of them.

Julie Johnston, pictured with her 32-year-old son son, Peter, has been waiting for a knee replacement for over two years

Mrs Johnston, 57, was added to the waiting list for a knee replacement in January 2020 but does not expect to get the surgery before a family holiday to Toronto in June this year.

"I know one girl who went on the waiting list for a knee operation in October 2019 - she's had her operation now, but she was cancelled twice," said Mrs Johnston, a full-time carer for her adult son who has complex learning disabilities.

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She praises the orthopaedics team at Glasgow Royal Infirmary for regularly keeping in touch, and says they have been upfront in telling her they are still working through patients added at the end of 2019. 

“We’ll go on holiday anyway because I think I need the holiday now as much as I need the knee done,” said Mrs Johnston.

"It's been two years of putting things off. The trip has already been postponed twice.

"I think I've got a reasonably high pain threshold. 

"One of the registrars had phoned one day to ask how I was finding the pain and I said 'in medical terms it's worse than a perforated bowel but nowhere near as bad as endometriosis'

"Getting in and out of the bath to go for a shower is getting a bit more problematic. If I sit too long it gets sore. If I'm on my feet too long it gets sore. It's a bit of a double-edged sword. 

"Even if I can't go for big long walks though I'm finding ways around it by stretching the knee or finding somewhere to sit down.

"I did laugh when my husband said 'let's just go private'. I looked at Ross Hall and Nuffield and I said 'Matthew, do you really want to pay £13,000?' 

"With my weight anyway, I'm not even sure that they would take me at a private hospital, and I really like my [NHS] surgeon. I trust him, he's honest. There's no guarantee I would get him if I went private.

“If it was a year from now and I was still waiting, I think I would be more worried, but they hope to have things back up and running soon. 

“There’s a backlog - there’s people who have been waiting since the end of October or beginning of November 2019. I’m not wanting pushed up the list. 

“I’m in pain, but everybody else is going through as much pain as I am. 

“I live in hope that I might get a pre-op when I get back from my holidays.”