However, it was not until more than a year later, in December 2022, that she finally had her appointment. There, the surgeon told her that the wait time to get just one knee replaced would be 150 weeks – nearly three years.
But by then, Stock had already had one of the operations – at a clinic in Lithuania.
She is part of a surge in British patients who are travelling abroad for orthopaedic treatments. Spiralling NHS waiting lists are driving a British medical tourism boom in Europe.
Like, oooh, I dunno, not having a Stalinist monopoly? Where you don’t have to worry about whether the service delivery in three years time is in the morning or afternoon as the plumber’s coming in the morning.
Three years? If she’s lucky. Which basically translates to “if the condition degenerates significantly”. Otherwise she’ll be gazumped in the queue by more severe cases.
Sounds like the market is solving the problem.