Imagine spending a week in constant pain, hardly able to walk. It’s not something any of us would wish to experience.
Take that week, multiply it 400 times, and you’re still not quite there if you’re working out the length of time some people requiring life-changing hip replacements are sitting waiting.
And sitting is all many of them can do. Getting out and about requires a determination none of us with full use of our bodies can fully appreciate unless put in that position ourselves.
Those in need of hip replacement surgery and living in the Belfast area are the lucky ones — if you can call it luck.
They will receive their treatment within 379 weeks (that’s more than seven years).
Live elsewhere, say in the Western Trust area, and that wait can be as long as 445 weeks (eight-and-a-half years).
There are more than 8,000 people on the waiting list for hip replacements, a figure that grows longer every year.
And people seeking knee replacement surgery don’t fare any better.
There are more than 6,000 on the waiting list, some of them left hanging around for up to eight years for procedures to be carried out.
The sobering figures were revealed by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt in answer to an Assembly question.
There is no glossing over the fact they demonstrate the terrible state our health service is in.
The Department of Health admitted the waiting times were “unacceptable”.
It added “funding arrangements continue to be challenging”.
Sadly, those awaiting hip or knee replacements have fallen down the list of priorities as our struggling hospitals put the emphasis on suspected cancer diagnoses and other time-critical illnesses.
Earlier this year the Department of Health requested £135m to help reduce waiting lists for elective surgery. A further £10m bid was submitted as part of the October monitoring round. Both requests fell on deaf ears.
Despite the change of government in London, the future prospects for our health service are still looking grim after years of under-investment by the Tories.
Some would argue it’s already dying on its feet and will soon be pushed over the edge.
It’s no longer enough to describe this waiting list or that waiting list as “unacceptable”.
What is truly “unacceptable” is a system that allows people to suffer in pain for years before they are finally offered relief through hip or knee surgery.