A Culloden grandmother spent £17,000 on private surgery to have her hip replaced after two years without even being added to an NHS waiting list.
Emma Tautscher said she opted to spend a five-figure sum on the procedure because she was struggling to cope with immense pain.
The retired hospitality worker, 72, feels “betrayed” after a horrendous ordeal trying to convince doctors she needed treatment.
“My whole quality of life had gone out the window,” she told The Press and Journal.
“I wanted my life back.”
Emma initially saw a surgeon in October 2022 after waiting nearly a year.
The mother-of-two had known for “some time” she had arthritis in her hip.
But she was told she did not require an operation.
Emma went for physio months later but it didn’t help.
Doctors told her they could only try to manage the pain.
Emma discovered she definitely needed surgery during a family trip to Austria in 2023.
Her friend, who works as a nurse, helped her get an MRI scan during the holiday which showed the extent of the problem.
‘This was no life’
Emma recalls being unable to supervise her granddaughter when they were at a swimming pool while abroad due to her lack of mobility.
“I couldn’t run after her,” Emma said.
“I was distraught. My husband found me sobbing. This was no life.”
But back home, she made little progress with the NHS.
“I was told there’s quite a waiting list,” she said.
Eventually, she opted for private surgery despite the eye-watering £17,000 cost.
Emma was operated on at Albyn Hospital in Aberdeen in September last year.
“I haven’t looked back,” she said.
“If I hadn’t gone private, I might still be on the waiting list.”
She added: “I was home the next day. I was walking within a couple of hours of the operation. It was amazing.”
Emma had asked doctors if she could travel to another health board but was told no.
A month after her procedure, she was called by the NHS since an appointment to see a specialist had opened up.
But even that would have simply been for a “second opinion” – not the surgery itself.
“I told them they were too late,” she said.
“I felt betrayed by the NHS. I pay my taxes, why can I not get treatment?”
A spokesperson for NHS Highland said: “Due to privacy and confidentiality, NHS Highland does not comment on individual cases.
“We are dedicated to reducing overall waiting times for our patients and sincerely apologise for the extended wait times that some of our orthopaedic patients have experienced for surgery.”
P&J health survey
Emma is one of 241 patients across Grampian and the Highlands who responded to the P&J’s health survey to say they used private healthcare.
Some travelled to other health board areas, including one using a foreign health service in the US through private healthcare.
The patient went for a knee replacement after waiting for more than two years to be treated at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Another NHS Grampian respondent said they ended up “in thousands of pounds of debt” for private ADHD treatment after a similarly long wait.
And one patient told us they are spending £800 for a private dermatology appointment after waiting for over 12 months.
In other survey findings, we reported:
- Around 18% of the respondents said they waited at least one year before deciding to go private.
- Just over one in 10 told us they spent more than £10,000 for their treatment, like Emma.
- Nearly 30% of respondents to the survey felt like they waited too long for procedures.
- A quarter of those patients say they simply gave up after waiting more than two years for the NHS to help.
Conversation