2,500 patients in Suffolk and Essex wait for knee or hip ops

Statistics from West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSNFT), which runs West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, shows 800 people are waiting for elective knee operations while 350 people are awaiting elective hip operations. 

Data from East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which maintains Ipswich Hospital and Colchester Hospital, said as of June 2024 there were 865 patients waiting to be admitted for a knee operation, and 656 waiting for a hip operation. 

Waiting times for an elective knee or hip operation at WSNFT are on average 60 weeks or more.

West Suffolk Hospital (Image: Newsquest)

Meanwhile, an ESNEFT spokesperson said they have no patients waiting over 78 weeks, as per national guidance, and are "on track to achieve no patients having to wait more than 65 weeks for treatment by the end of September 2024." 

Plans for a new Essex and Suffolk Elective Orthopaedic Centre (ESEOC) in Colchester were approved in June 2021.

Last month Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board agreed to move 55% of surgeries from West Suffolk Hospital in a bid to cut waiting times. 

Dr Martin Mansfield, deputy chief medical officer at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Our teams are working hard to see and assess everyone waiting for treatment in the communities we serve.

"We review all the patients on our waiting lists regularly and hold extra outpatient clinics and operating lists wherever possible. ESNEFT has a plan to deliver the national standard for patient waiting times.

An ESNEFT spokesperson said they have no patients waiting over 78 weeks (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown, Newsquest)

"Our new Essex and Suffolk Elective Orthopaedic Centre will be a fantastic resource to treat patients who need orthopaedic procedures when it opens later this year. The state-of-the-art centre, based at Colchester Hospital, will have 72 beds and eight new theatres with more than 10,000 operations taking place every year.

"With the additional capacity that the new centre will provide, we will see a further reduction in waiting times for our patients across the region."

Meanwhile, a WSNFT spokesperson said moving procedures to ESEOC will help patients be seen more quickly, provide and increased capacity, reduce the risk of cancellations and concentrate expertise to the state-of-the-art facility. 

They said the new site would be a "centre of excellence" with high quality services from specialist teams within Europe’s largest elective orthopaedic centre. 

Orthopaedic trauma and paediatric surgery will remain at the West Suffolk Hospital, and all pre and post-operative care, including pre-operative assessments, will continue to be provided at the hospital and in pre-existing peripheral clinics.

This comes as 79-year-old Suffolk livestock farmer Edward Turner, who had been in pain for two years, took the move to get knee surgery in France after being he told he would need to wait 18 months for treatment. 

Mr Turner had undergone physiotherapy on the NHS but, faced with the delay of a replacement knee, they looked privately in England but found the £17,500 costs too expensive. 

Edward Turner with Sally (Image: Elite Surgery Abroad)

Eventually Mr Turner opted to get surgery with Elite Surgery Abroad at Pauchet Santé, based in Amiens, France, and took the trip with his partner Sally. 

Mr Turner said: “After a virtual consultation with orthopaedic surgeon Dr Maxime Louis Menciere, ESA offered a complete package, with one figure, and, importantly, the surgery could be done almost straight away.

"We would not have to join any other long queues and the hospital was just a four-hour drive from our home." 

He continued: "Having been told on the Wednesday that I was suitable for surgery I presented myself for the operation on the Friday.

"Sally went out for a walk for a few hours and by the time she came back it was all over.

“The surgeon came to see me an hour later and said he was really pleased, as were all the nurses. They were all very jolly and seemed to have a tremendous team spirit.”