{"id":35771,"date":"2026-05-13T21:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/35771\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:00:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:00:53","slug":"ive-had-hip-replacements-in-both-spain-and-the-uk-theres-one-clear-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/35771\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve had hip replacements in both Spain and the UK \u2013 there\u2019s one clear winner\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My one mistake was trying to drive too early. Going down a steep hill, I realised I couldn\u2019t put proper pressure on the brakes. I managed to switch the car from automatic to manual and crawled home in first gear.<\/p>\n<p>But there were frustrations. I only had a couple of short, outpatient physio sessions included with my package, and six weeks after surgery I developed an infection in the incision wound, which set me back. I was on antibiotics for six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Hidden costs<\/p>\n<p>Gradually, I got back to normal life. For three years everything was fine, then my other hip started to go. I had to shorten my <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/health-fitness\/fitness\/walking\/health-benefits-of-walking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">walks<\/a>, give up croquet games and even stop volunteering at my local food bank.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, a private MRI scan confirmed bone-on-bone loss of cartilage in my hip. I didn\u2019t even consider waiting for the NHS \u2013 I\u2019d read too much about the staggeringly long waiting lists. After all, you can\u2019t take your savings with you to the other side. But what would it cost this time?<\/p>\n<p>I was shocked to find my surgeon\u2019s price had risen to \u00a315,000, and he was pushing robotic surgery, which was even more expensive. Having been underwhelmed by my first experience, I decided to do some proper research.<\/p>\n<p>By then, prices in the UK private hospitals I looked at ranged from around \u00a315,000 to \u00a320,000, often excluding imaging and extras. Where on earth was all the extra money going? According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a hip replacement costs the NHS approximately \u00a37,800.<\/p>\n<p>Then, while searching online, I came across a medical tourism company, TailorDoc, offering hip replacements in Spain for significantly less than UK prices. That got my attention.<\/p>\n<p>The package included the minimally invasive surgery with a very experienced orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Fernando Corb\u00ed, and 12 days\u2019 rehabilitation, including accommodation and meals in a four-star hotel. This would set me back \u00a311,400, including flights which I booked myself. It had gathered plenty of five-star reviews on Trustpilot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My one mistake was trying to drive too early. Going down a steep hill, I realised I couldn\u2019t&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16547,16548,10145,16545,424,5877,5878,16546,330,6340,1797,5,6,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-35771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-bones-amp-joints","9":"tag-conditions","10":"tag-health-and-fitness","11":"tag-hip-replacements","12":"tag-lifestyle","13":"tag-nhs-national-health-service","14":"tag-nhs-waiting-lists","15":"tag-private-healthcare","16":"tag-standard","17":"tag-surgery","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-us-content"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116569288362101568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}