I have just in on this thread. My wife had had both hips and both knees replaced. One of the operations was NHS (the third); the others we paid for privately.

In each case it was because of the waiting time, but it was a long and complicated saga, including a wait of several years on the NHS for the first of them, and then to have it cancelled while she was on the operating table because of a heart flutter they had not detected before and the place she was sent had no one with the relevant skills. After that, she was told she had to wait for months until they were confident there was no.major problem, then they would put her back.on the waiting list.

We went private.