The areas of Scotland where patients are waiting more than five years for hip and knee replacements

Freedom of information requests showed that one patient waited 2,049 days for a hip replacement, while another waited 1,786 days. Patients suffering from crippling knee pain faced similar delays, with one patient waiting 1,868 days — or more than five years.

The median wait for either a hip or knee replacement in 2024-25 was more than a year in five out of 14 health boards.

Scottish Labour's Health Spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: "These figures show the SNP are putting Scots' lives on hold for years.

"Scots who could be working, exercising and living independently are instead forced to endure years of crippling pain because of the SNP's failure to get waiting lists down.

"Scottish Labour will declare a National Waiting Times Emergency, reduce waiting lists by using all available capacity and allow Scots to get on with their lives by ensuring they get the treatment they need."

The health board with the longest wait for a hip replacement was NHS Tayside, where one patient waited 2,049 days - more than five years and seven months.

For knee replacements, the longest wait was in NHS Highland at 1,868 days - five years and one month.

No health boards had their longest wait of under a year. The two lowest were Orkney and the Western Isles on 14 months. Again, there was no data available for longest knee operation waits for Lothian and Shetland.

The data on longest and average waits for hip and knee joint replacement surgery includes patients referred to NHS Forth Valley from other Health Board areas for treatment as part of National Treatment Centre arrangements.

These patients had exceeded the national waiting time target in their local NHS Board area and had already waited more than two years for treatment prior to being transferred to NHS Forth Valley.

On the BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show yesterday, SNP Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville insisted progress was being made.

She said: “We see record hip and knee replacements now.

“We see the average the number of operations and procedures that are going forward, the highest since the pandemic.

“We've got waiting lists and waiting times coming down.”

When challenged that the number of patients waiting more than three years for treatment had hit a record high in late 2025, Ms Somerville said: “We've seen six months of continued reductions in some of the longest waits, those over a year.

“Yes, absolutely, the NHS faces challenges, but it is turning a corner.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Our analysis shows more than 500,000 operations have been lost since the pandemic first began. Despite the best efforts of staff, the NHS is still doing fewer operations than it was pre-2020 so can’t catch up. It’s leaving people waiting in pain and unable to get on in life.

“The SNP have shown that they can’t be trusted to get our health service back on its feet.

“Getting you the care you need, when you need it, starts with training and retaining doctors, nurses and all the other staff that make our NHS tick. It's why we will launch a rolling 10-year NHS Workforce Plan to get on top of what our health service needs. We will trust frontline NHS staff to help with this, including through a new NHS and Social Care Staff Assembly that capitalises on their expertise.”

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “These figures show our NHS is facing a ticking timebomb when it comes to hip and knee replacements.

“The astronomical waits expose just how bad the NHS backlog has got under countless SNP health secretaries who have failed to address the crisis.

“Poor workforce planning means more and more Scots are waiting years for vital procedures and tests.

“Having worked in orthopaedics for close to a decade, I know that patients waiting for hip and knee replacements are in agony and could be left with no option but to go private for surgery, using money they simply don’t have.

“We need a fresh approach, which incorporates modern, efficient and local solutions into healthcare.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Statistics show a record number of hip and knee arthroplasty operations were performed in Scotland in 2024.

“Public Health Scotland statistics published last week have shown that NHS Scotland long waits have fallen for the sixth consecutive month with significant year-on-year increases in activity. These demonstrate real and sustained progress in reducing waiting times for patients across Scotland, ensuring thousands more people receive the care they need.”