Hi hope you are all well, I saw this morning that the amount of hip replacements is being cut due to what has been deemed as unnescassary ops, it said that too many people are having it done when its not absolutely nescassary.
Any comment's.
That is so rediculous.Most of us walk around in pain for years before we have it done. In NM if you go to canter of excellence you have to be within a certain BMI,not smoke,get releases from the dentist,go to classes prior to them signing off for the surgery.Its that the baby boomers are aging and more of these surgeries are needed and though we paid into the system they want to minimize our use of it .
Who in their right mind would want it unless it was absolutely necessary. Does this apply to USA or England
Good morning! My first question would be who can decide how painful or necessary hip replacement is but the person needing relief? No one knows how you feel but you! I am 11 days out from THR and 100% improved from the pain I endured for months. If someone would have told me I didn't need surgery, I would have told them they were out of their mind. Just my honest opinion.😀
UK - but it was only reported to be a certain Health Authority. The report didn't make it clear whether this meant this HA was the only one admitting to doing this though!
Hi I did see that in the news today. I would ask why the consultants are carrying out the operations if they are unnecessary. It took me 2years to get my hip done now 7 weeks post op. I had naccrossis in the hip. Had to jump through lots of hoops to finally get them to do it and get the funding. But the more I read on here the more I get the impression that most NHS hospitals and areas all run differently with regard to funding/aftercare. My other hip needs doing due to same issue and have been told by consultant to come back in 10 months and he will see if he will operate in 2019.
Listening to the report the stipulation is not being able to sleep with the pain, and a few other requirements, that most of us suffer anyway post op.
No one in their right mind would ever elect to have this operation without being in severe pain or their mobility severely impacted and usually both in combination, and usually to a life limiting degree. I can't imagine there are going to be many patients that are missing one or both of these elements, so my guess is that they are not going to limit the operations to patients in genuine need.
That said, I am very concerned that it is a slippery slope - and the fact the consultants are 'judging' patients at all (should the xrays etc not speak for themselves?) is very worrying. We must not leave people to suffer when there is a perfect solution to their pain and misery. It is completely wrong. The NHS need to be careful about the precdent they are now setting....
My life would not be worth living without this operation and I could not possibly support any limit to the patients needing one. Of all the things the NHS could cut back on, why this??
Should read pre op not post op
I'm totally with you all--this is a highly invasive surgery with a complete recovery time of close to a year (yes, you can be quite good a lot sooner, but I'm talking about everything totally grown together and healed).
No one on their right mind would choose to undergo all of this if there was another suitable option available. I tried physical therapy (I became more fit, but my hips worsened anyway!), consumed all kinds of natural therapies (turmeric pills, real turmeric root) which probably made me healthier overall but did nothing for my hips (that I was able to feel).
Surgery is what you undergo when you're desperate. I think.
The problem is that, for some obscure (and to me obscene) reason, hip replacement is considered to be elective surgery - that is, you choose to have it. That is a ridiculous assessment. You can break a limb bungee jumping or jumping out of a plane - both of which activities are definitely "elective" - and nobody says that you can't have treatment! A hip replacement - or any other joint replacement - is not cosmetic surgery.
​What is needed is a re-categorisation of these surgeries from elective to critical (or whatever they call things that must be done). And as others have observed, there's a lot of us around now. "Grey power" is a serious vote risk - but it needs people to be prepared to organise politically to force the governments hand. We will never achieve change by knocking on the doors of individual health authorities - the managers who balance the budgets (and it is the managers, not the surgeons, who dream up these rules) don't listen. So it has to be something that politicans think will risk or win them votes. Are we organised enough? No! And that is why nothing will change until we are.
Because we are "old" and shouldn't mind that we are wearing out because we aren't really all that productive any more? Because we are easy prey because we don't fight back?
​And it isn't consultants. It's managers. Consultants don't run the NHS. Probably rightly so, since they don't have any reason to know how to manage a major public service. Unfortunately, it would appear that many of the managers don't either.
How do they decide what 'moderate pain' is ... it's different for different people.
Apparently it only applies to three Clinical Commissioning Groups (Redditch and Bromsgrove, South Worcestershire, and Wyre Forest) in Worcestershire.
They will be treating only "severe to the upper end of moderate" cases, and people who are obese with a body mass index of 35 or over will need to lose 10% of their weight unless their problems were very severe.
I am totally perplexed with the arithmetic. All they can save is the cost of the hip joint, as the rest of the costs will still be spent anyway, beds, operating theatres etc or are they going to start laying off orthopaedic surgeons? Also by choosing people who cannot sleep seems a bit nebulous, it seems the people who make the most noise. Why on earth can't they look at an xray and say that person is more in need of a new hip than someone else?
Also if someone is really in need of a new hip and does not get one there will be GP costs, physio possibly, painkillers, social services etc etc while those costs would go away eventually after the hip operation. There was an orthopaedic surgeon on the radio today saying that the decisions for surgery were being made by GPs and it should be the surgeons deciding.
I think the savings were calculated by saying a THR cost x amount, therefore if we don't do it we will save x, which is rubbish of course. They still have all the overheads sitting there.
So when you cannot have vital surgery, you become more disabled but to get assistance in the UK is a nightmare. Physically disability is not enough under the new guidelines you have to have a Mental Health issue as well... believe me been down the path and lost.
​This Government making life difficult enough let alone the pain we suffer. I am due to have both knees replaced once I have recovered from my hip surgery but with these guidelines I doubt I will pass enough of the criteria..... so without this my hips will not become 100% due to issues with my knees...
​So even though I have had my hips done, I am still unable to walk a great distance due to the knees but do I qualify for a Blue Badge... not in my Town... even though I Judge has given me a letter requesting I am issued with one. Been 5 months and nothing now been called for a medical with them. If anything like the PIP medical (new DLA) they will say with surgery I will no longer be disabled. Yeah right trying telling the NHS that, and the pain I suffer.
Maybe classed as elective because it's not life threatening in the same way as heart disease or cancer for instance?
Are you watching the St Mary's hospital programme on Wednesdays? I find it very depressing.
maybe this is to help the stem cell research / clinical trials (though I doubt it)! In Canada, there's a lid on the number allowed to be performed eack week, which has caused terrible wait times...and the after care is minimal...
Excuse my "French" but that's a lots bullcrap!!!! Who in the hell would do that to themselves if it weren't absolutely necessary?! I was told by my doctors that I would have to do my operation only when I reached the point that I hurt 24/7 and when I wont able to sleep at night. And that's how it happened. I was "half-sleeping" for only 3 hrs a day from the pain, I was a wreck, limping everywhere. So that"theory" of theirs is ridiculous!! The doctors tell everyone to wait until the last minute, probably so that they can justify performing such an expensive operation. It's not our faults that we got a joint affliction that can ONLY be fixed with surgery. What a bunch of cheapskate asses!!😒
I was told by a nurse that any sugery was "elective" if you could sign the papers yourself.
Yes but once that occurs then it will set a precedent that other Companies,systems,cities and countries will follow. The systems are looking to maximize profit . Not procedures which does cost the system .
It was so hard as a person who had to work full time to do so at the level of pain I was experiencing . It was for the 1 st time really getting depressed despite my true best efforts to handle the pain in a positive holistic way.Our jobs at the same time demand maximum efficiency and it's really tough . These companies should not get to make that decision. It's not like getting a nose job,or breast augmentation for vanity . This is life altering .