"Waiting for a hip replacement"

I'm not complaining about a specific hospital or practice because its not about blame but I’m 55 years old and, in early March 2018 I asked for a referral to a surgeon for a less invasive double hip replacement (after holding off for 4 years). Its now mid November and I have recently been given a date of mid January for an operation. So that’s another 2 months in agony, over Christmas. I live alone and have to look after myself.

Since August I’ve been on crutches, in extreme pain and seeing long term damage taking shape, sleeping for 4-5 hrs a night, unable to get to work, having to cancel all engagements, experiencing panic attacks. If I followed advice I’d be on sick leave, lying on my bed, out of my head on codeine for six months. However I have a senior position at a university as well as a national charity, and so have been trying everything possible to avoid this situation so as to fulfil my commitments as well as to avoid long term physical damage and being a burden on the NHS.  

During this process, whilst everyone’s been ostensibly helpful, I’ve also been mis-informed, fobbed off, and experienced a lack of duty of care. (I do wonder if I’d have been taken more seriously had I been a business man with similar commitments.) What I’ve experienced is being typecast, and of staff (NHS and private) prioritising covering their errors over the patient’s welfare.

So that’s a wait of 10 months since my request for a referral, or 27 weeks on the NHS waiting list which reports on its website to do ‘everything possible’ to ensure an operation as soon as possible after the 18 week maximum wait time. Notwithstanding my condition, my case is not yet considered sufficiently extreme to warrant an urgent operation. I'm more bewildered than anything as I'm rarely ill and this wasn't what I would have expected.