Getting a private hip replacement: what to consider

Piper Terrett underwent a private hip replacement. Here's how much it cost and what it involved.

“You’re too young for a hip replacement,” said the NHS doctor.

“Let me know if you need painkillers.”

I’d just been diagnosed with arthritis in both hips. 

“Is there anything else I need to consider?” I asked. “Will driving make it worse?” I had to drive over an hour to get to work at the time.

“Oh, you might need to switch to an automatic car at some point.”

With that, he sent me packing from his office.

I was 46, otherwise reasonably healthy, had never broken a bone, done extreme sports or gone skiing, and, ok, just a few pounds overweight. 

But when I’d started getting pains in both hips a few months prior, I’d had an appointment with a more sympathetic doctor who’d examined me and sent me off for x-rays. 

I figured after the diagnosis, I’d be fine for years. This doctor volunteered very little information but suggested the condition progressed unpredictably, and it could be a while before I needed further intervention. 

In search of a replacement hip

Yet just over a year later, I would be in agony, unable to work, drive and desperate for a hip replacement operation.

But, after begging for an emergency appointment, all I was able to extract from my doctors was co-codamol and the suggestion that the next step might be steroid injections if I was lucky. 

“Use Deep Heat,“ another doctor told me, who refused to believe my hip had worsened, as it didn’t look that bad on the x-rays.

“It can’t be your hip – it must be bursitis. A hip replacement won’t help.”

I’d waited a month for that appointment and he couldn’t get me out of his office quickly enough, even though the waiting room was empty. 

The NHS obviously has huge waiting lists for replacement joint operations, especially since Covid delayed many procedures.

However, when it comes to hip replacements, younger patients are effectively denied surgery for as long as possible on the basis that the younger they are, the more likely they will need a second replacement in later years. 

The current prosthetic hips last 15 to 20 years. Fitting a second hip replacement is more difficult and riskier than fitting a first. 

Another Mum at my son’s school of a similar age had waited in much pain for her second hip to be done, being told, “take ibuprofen and come back in five years.” She managed two years.

I wasn’t anywhere near getting on the waiting list, so I knew I had to consider having a hip replacement done privately.

My previous work contract ended around the time my hip went and I was unable to secure another, despite many interviews, I suspected because of my hip. 

So, while a private procedure would cost a fortune, I was already losing thousands of pounds in work because of the problem.

My father-in-law suggested getting a private MRI scan to find out what was going on.

I managed to get one within a week for around £250 per item to be MRI-ed (I had my hip and knee done for £500) in a mobile unit in an Asda car park in Norwich, of all places. 

I got the results within days via email and it showed extensive damage from arthritis to my left hip but the knee, also sore, just required some physiotherapy. 

The cost of private hip replacements

The average cost of a hip replacement in the UK is around £14,000 – a huge sum to find, unless you have private medical insurance in place and it doesn’t count as an existing condition, which the insurance might not cover.

Of course, it’s possible to have the surgery done abroad in Europe or elsewhere, often by surgeons who also operate and have been trained in the UK, for less – from £5,600 to  £12,000. I was tempted. 

However, there are many risks to consider, not least the language barrier, the quality of care and having to travel and fly after surgery, with the risk of DVT.

Dental care abroad may be one thing, but major surgery is another.

I managed to find a cheaper provider an hour and a half’s drive from us in East London, which claimed to offer the surgery for £10,000 – quite a saving. 

However, in the event I had to have two consultations there as the first appointment they made was at a weekend and they were unable to take x-rays.  I was, however, only charged for one consultation, which cost £168.

I then had to pay £100 for a night in a hotel to attend the second consultation as it was at 8.30am and £60 to travel down from Norfolk. 

The surgeon I saw this time was a different one, hadn’t read my notes and seemed petrified at the idea of performing a hip replacement on a 48-year-old, as I was by this time.

He tried to persuade me to try steroid injections instead – at a cost of £2,000. 

I had read up on these and felt they were a waste of money, given you can get them on the NHS in a doctor’s surgery for free.

Plus, while some patients get relief, they often either don’t work or only for a short period of time and can also make things worse. 

This would mean there was far less of a saving on the hip replacement, as together with the steroid injections it would cost closer to £13,000, once multiple travel and hotel costs were taken into account. 

Waiting game

I decided to try some physiotherapy which I eventually got on the NHS and this helped for a time, building up the muscles around the hip.

However, after a family trip to York to celebrate my Mother-in-Law’s 80th birthday - and the agony I was in for weeks after the walking around town, unable to keep up with my much fitter MIL - it became apparent that surgery was necessary. 

I began investigating private hospitals and surgeons once again.  

A private medical provider suggested surgeons in Peterborough, an hour away. Their CVs and reviews were impeccable – the surgeons were highly experienced, trained in the UK and US and now taught medical students how to do the procedures. 

I was put forward for a consultation, which cost £260. I then was also charged £150 for x-rays as they were unable to access the x-rays from the other private hospital.

My private MRI scan was key, as well as my poor mobility, in persuading my surgeon that I needed a total hip replacement as, once again, it didn’t look that bad on their x-rays. 

Private waiting lists

However, even in private medicine now there are waiting lists, the overspill from the NHS is so great.

My surgeon was so popular that the wait was two to three months. At the previous private hospital it was only three weeks.

Luckily, a date became available in March and I was booked in. 

The hospital was beautifully clean, I had my own private room and the nurses and doctors were attentive and kind. 

I had the surgery at lunchtime on the Saturday and was back home by late Sunday afternoon.  

In the event, the surgeon said the old hip was very bad and much worse than it appeared to be on the x-rays. 

Two weeks on, I am recovering well at home on crutches with ‘Muriel’ my new bionic hip. I am out of pain – the first few days, unsurprisingly, it was very painful and stiff – and now I just have the odd dull ache or feel fidgety, a sign I need to do my physio. 

Initial recovery is around six weeks, with full recovery time a year as you build up your stamina with walking and physiotherapy.

What you get for your money

The £14,000 included the operation, hospital care, all walking aids, medication and five physiotherapy sessions, as well as a follow-up appointment with my surgeon at six weeks post-op.

 I also got a year’s BUPA membership with remote access to a private doctor. 

While we funded the surgery ourselves, it was possible to borrow the money for the operation from the medical provider itself. 

However, this was subject to status and the interest rates were higher than for a personal loan you might be able to access from your bank or building society. 

Advice for patients seeking a new hip

In terms of advice for anyone else in need of a new hip or other joint and considering going private, I have these nine tips. 

1.    If you’re experiencing push-back from your NHS doctor, trust your own body and don’t take no for answer. They may be right, but you know your own body better than someone who has seen you for 10 minutes.

2.    Push for x-rays, an MRI – whether on the NHS or privately - and a second opinion.

3.    If you need to stick with the NHS and your doctor isn’t cooperative, say you want to be referred to a consultant.

4.    One you’re on the NHS waiting list, ring up regularly to ask if there’s a date yet. If there’s a cancellation, you might be top of their minds from pester power.This worked for my Dad who rang up every week until a cancellation came through. 

5.    If you choose to go private, shop around for care and don’t necessarily go with the first provider you see.

6.    Ask how many times the surgeon has performed this procedure, do they do them regularly or do they specialise in other areas. 

7.    Read reviews of the surgeon and hospital – these are generally available to read on the Internet. 

8.    Find out the risks involved. No surgery is risk or pain-free. There may be the possibility of complications, DVT, dislocation and one leg may also end up being longer than the other after surgery, although the surgeons will try to avoid this.

9.    Talk to other patients who have had the surgery to find out where they were treated, what their experiences were and who their surgeon was and whether they’d recommend them. 

All in all, it can be difficult to know whether to wait for your name to come up on the NHS waiting lists, which could take years spent in pain, or to pay out thousands of pounds for a private operation – if, of course, you are lucky to have that option. 

However, as a neighbour remarked to me, you wouldn’t hesitate to spend that kind of money on a car and you are investing in your own future and well-being. 

I hope to enjoy many more years ahead of me with my new hip and take better care of ‘Muriel’ than I did my previous one. And I never did buy that automatic car.