Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a hip replacement.

People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.

We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.

Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.