When Rosemary Duff heard how long she would have to wait for a hip replacement operation on the NHS, she felt she had no choice but to dip into her savings. “I waited a month to see my GP, then another four months to see a consultant. His opening words were ‘unless you go private, there’s an 18-month waiting list’, which was a bit of a shock,” said Duff, 71, from Norwich. “Much against my principles, I agreed to go private.” Duff said her hips had started to play up after the first Covid lockdown, and she had physio through the NHS that had slowed down the deterioration. But a year ago she began experiencing increased pain, was not able to walk very far and struggled to get up the stairs. Duff, who worked in market research before retiring, spent almost £28,000 having both hips replaced last year at a private hospital run by Circle Health Group. “A lot of money out of my savings, but my children said I should go ahead and do it!” she said. The same consultant surgeon who advised her to go private then performed the surgery at the Clementine Churchill hospital in Harrow. Many...