East Kilbride grandfather swaps dream holiday for hip surgery abroad amid NHS delays

Key Points

East Kilbride plumber Tony Daley gave up a dream Alaska cruise to fund £11,000 private hip surgery in France.
He had already waited 55 weeks to see an NHS consultant and was told it could take up to three more years for surgery.
Tony described the pain of arthritis in his hip as “like having constant toothache” and feared he could not cope much longer.
Within 18 hours of his operation abroad, he was walking again and says he now feels “as if I could take on the world.”
NHS Lanarkshire has some of Scotland’s longest orthopaedic waits, with more than 1,900 patients waiting over a year.

A plumber from South Lanarkshire has told how he sacrificed his dream 60th birthday holiday to fund life-changing hip surgery abroad after being warned he could face years of waiting on the NHS.

Tony Daley from East Kilbride, who works for the NHS himself, was left in constant agony with arthritis in his hip and feared he would not cope with the long delays for treatment.

The 61-year-old had been planning a cruise to Alaska to celebrate his milestone birthday. But instead, he and his wife used the money to pay £11,000 for a hip replacement in France through Glasgow-based Elite Surgery Abroad.

“I took that opportunity to get the job done there,” he told STV News. “It’s a shame that I had to go private, but the pain was just unbearable and I couldn’t wait that length of time to get my hip fixed.“

Tony spent three weeks in Amiens, north of Paris, and was up and walking within 18 hours of the procedure. Six weeks later, he is back home and continuing physiotherapy at the gym every day.

He also has managed aftercare as part of his rehabilitation.

He said: “I’ve been told off for overdoing it and trying to do things a bit too quick, but it is hard not to do that when you just feel so good. It has made such a difference. I feel as if I could take on the world. Honestly, it is brilliant.

“You forget how much you have deteriorated and I’m actually feeling better than I’ve felt in a long, long time. My family have noticed a big difference, an unbelievable difference. They say ‘you have learned to smile, you look as if you’re happy’.

“Obviously I’m gutted I missed my cruise, but in the same vein I can’t put a price on what I’ve gained – getting my health back and getting back to normal again.“

Across Scotland, one in nine people are currently waiting for treatment on an NHS list, with a record number turning to private healthcare in recent months.

NHS Lanarkshire, Tony’s local health board, has some of the country’s longest waits for orthopaedic surgery, with more than 1,900 people waiting more than a year for procedures including hip and knee replacements.

The board said it recognises the impact on patients and is committed to reducing the backlog.

Stephen Peebles, NHS Lanarkshire deputy director of acute services, said: “Like many other NHS boards across Scotland, our waiting list for planned orthopaedic surgery is longer than we would like.

“We understand how difficult long waits are for patients and this is a priority for NHS Lanarkshire.

“To reduce waiting lists we have recruited more staff and created additional weekend activity for clinics and operating theatres to help manage demand. This work is supported by additional funding from the Scottish Government.

“We’re also working with other health boards and independent providers to reduce waiting lists.”

But the clinic that helped Tony in France said it was seeing an increase in the number of patients opting to leave the UK for treatment.

ESA founder and director Raoul Mkoh said: “The sad reality is that many patients, like Tony Daley, are living in severe pain while facing years-long waits for treatment on the NHS. Some are fortunate enough to eventually receive surgery in reasonable time, but a comprehensive aftercare package is often lacking.

“This situation motivated me to create an alternative and faster route to surgery in a leading country that remains affordable for as many patients as possible.”

Scotland recorded a 5% increase in private hospital and clinic admissions in January to March compared to the same quarter last year, reaching a historic high of 13,195.

The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN), which has just released its latest quarterly update, revealed this was the highest number of admissions ever recorded in a single quarter in Scotland.

Dr Ian Garghan, PHIN’s chief executive, said: “It’s the biggest increase in hospital admissions in private sector medicine in the history of Scotland.

“There’s more of an appetite for it now, because of the private medical insurance offered, and then the education of the patients – knowing they can go and have their private sector elective surgery or their scope so the diagnostics, and then return to the NHS.”

PHIN said the increase had been driven by a 10% rise in private medical insurance-funded admissions, which has exceeded 8,000 for the first time.

Insurance-funded treatments now account for 62% of all private admissions in Scotland, which is the highest proportion since the Covid pandemic. In contrast, self-pay admissions fell by 2%, totalling 5,465 cases.

Health secretary Neil Gray said: “It [private healthcare] still accounts for a very small level of procedures that are delivered across Scotland, and we are still seeing much, much lower levels of private sector usage in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK.”

But Dr Iain Kennedy, chair of BMA Scotland, warned: “We are already sleepwalking into a two-tier health service, where those that can afford to go private, go private and those that cannot afford have to wait longer and longer in the NHS waiting times.”