New research from the University of Edinburgh has disproved the perception that pain from hip and knee arthritis is only mildly discomforting and that surgery is an option, as the results of the study show that one in five patients waiting for a hip replacement are experiencing an extreme level of pain.

The results have been welcomed by orthopaedic surgeons at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre, which is part of a patient's choice of where they can receive treatment.

They are keen to emphasise that patients have the right to choose where they are treated and, if they have been told they must wait for more than 18 weeks for surgery, they can also ask to be moved to a hospital with a shorter waiting list.

The Edinburgh researchers are the first to use a quality of life measurement to analyse levels of pain in those with hip problems.

They found that 20 per cent of people waiting for a hip replacement, and 12 per cent of those waiting for a knee replacement, reported extreme pain or discomfort – a worse result than those for diabetes, heart failure or lung diseases.

The research measured 4,000 hip replacement patients and 2,000 knee replacement patients.

Jac Ciampolini, medical director at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre, said: "We welcome this latest study because it takes seriously the debilitating pain experienced by our patients before surgery.

"Acute pain in the hip or knee has a huge effect on a patient's general health. It precludes them from exercise, which is good for cardiac and pulmonary health and which helps keep conditions such as diabetes at bay, and it stops them from doing the things they enjoy.

"It can also have a detrimental effect psychologically – living long-term with pain is mentally gruelling, affects sleep patterns and can lead to depression or more serious mental health issues.

"In many cases, by the time patients get to us for treatment they may have been in pain and waiting for surgery for years.

"It is extremely useful to have a study of this stature which explicitly states that, for the thousands of patients in acute joint pain, surgery is a necessity and not an option and that patients should not be the first to have their treatment limited or cancelled all together."

Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre is top in the country for primary hip replacements in the year to March 2019, according to the national Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). The hospital was also in the top five per cent for total knee placements.

The hospital was the first hospital of its kind to be rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission across the five domains of the quality mark.