Hip and knee replacement waiting times: how long, and how to be seen faster
Hip and knee replacements are among the most-searched NHS waits in the country. The wait you get is not fixed. It depends heavily on which hospital you are referred to, and hospitals a short drive apart can be treating people months apart. This guide explains how long the wait really is, why it varies so much, and the free, legal way to find a faster route.
Written and reviewed by Mustafa Ghafouri (MBChB, MSc) ·
There is no single wait — that's the whole point
People search for “the” hip or knee replacement waiting time as if there is one number. There is not. The wait is set by the individual NHS trust your referral lands at, and the spread between trusts is large. For the same operation, one hospital's median wait can be several times another's, often for hospitals within easy travelling distance of each other.
Because these figures move every month, the useful thing is to look up your own area rather than trust a number in an article. You can see every English trust's current orthopaedic wait, ranked shortest first:
Your Right to Choose a faster hospital
This is the part most patients are never told. In England you have a legal right, at the point your GP refers you, to choose which hospital you are sent to for a planned operation like a hip or knee replacement — and that includes choosing one with a shorter waiting list. It is called the NHS Right to Choose, and it costs nothing.
In practice, most referrals go to the nearest hospital by default, even when somewhere nearby is treating people far sooner. If you would rather be seen faster, you can ask. The site even drafts the letter to take to your GP:
How to find your fastest option
- Look up the current waits near you on the hip replacement or knee replacement page — enter your postcode and see every hospital ranked by wait and distance.
- Weigh a shorter wait against travel. Follow-up and physiotherapy happen at the operating hospital too, so a much further hospital is a real trade-off. Talk it through with your GP.
- If a faster hospital suits you, ask your GP to refer you there under Right to Choose. Take the drafted letter with you.
What about going private?
Some people decide to pay for a private hip or knee replacement to avoid a long wait, and for some that is the right call — a number of patients also have private medical insurance through work that they had forgotten covers it. If you are weighing that up, it is worth doing it with clear eyes: self-pay prices run into the low- to-mid five figures and vary by provider, so get current quotes directly rather than trusting a fixed figure.
One thing worth checking first, though: whether a faster NHS trust is actually available to you under your Right to Choose. Many people pay for a wait they could have shortened for free. The comparison tool shows both, so you can make the decision knowing what the free route would have got you.
Frequently asked questions
- How long is the NHS wait for a hip or knee replacement?
- There is no single national number, and that is the important part. The wait for a hip or knee replacement is set by the individual NHS trust you are referred to, and those waits vary enormously — the slowest trusts can be several times slower than the fastest ones a similar distance away. Because the figure changes every month, the honest answer is to look up your own area: the trust-by-trust median wait for orthopaedics is published on hospitalwaits.co.uk/national/trauma-orthopaedics.
- Can I choose which hospital does my hip or knee replacement?
- Yes. In England you have a legal right, at the point your GP refers you, to choose which hospital or clinic you are sent to for planned surgery — including one with a shorter waiting list. This is the NHS 'Right to Choose'. Most patients are never told about it and simply go to their nearest hospital by default, even when a hospital a short drive away is treating people months sooner.
- Is it worth travelling further for a shorter wait?
- It can be, but it is a genuine trade-off to weigh with your GP. A shorter wait has to be balanced against the fact that follow-up appointments, physiotherapy and any complications will be at that hospital too, which is harder if it is ninety minutes away. For a straightforward hip or knee replacement many people decide the shorter wait is worth some extra distance; for others it is not. The point is that you get to make that choice with the real numbers in front of you.
- Why do hip and knee waits vary so much between hospitals?
- Different trusts have different surgical capacity, theatre availability, staffing and backlog. Some pool their waiting lists across surgeons and some do not. A trust that has invested in high-volume joint-replacement lists will move faster than one where orthopaedics competes for the same theatres as trauma and emergencies. None of this is visible to a patient at the point of referral, which is exactly why comparing is worth it.
- How much does a private hip or knee replacement cost?
- Self-pay prices for hip and knee replacement are typically in the low-to-mid five figures and vary by provider and region, so check current quotes directly with providers rather than trusting a fixed figure. Some people also have private medical insurance through work they had forgotten covers this. Going private is one option among several — but before paying, it is worth checking whether a faster NHS trust is available to you under your Right to Choose, because many people pay for a wait they could have shortened for free.
Where these numbers come from
Everything on HospitalWaits comes from NHS England's own monthly Referral-to-Treatment data, and every figure links to its NHS source so you can check it. The methodology, including the known limitations, is public. Nothing here is medical advice — the site surfaces the published waiting-time data so you and your GP can use it.