The public could be underestimating how long they’d have to wait for an operation according to a new study.

The study from Norwich Union Healthcare into people’s perceptions of waiting times shows that those questioned expect to wait just five months for a hip operation, when in reality, many wait far longer.

The latest figures from Norwich Union Healthcare show an average eight and a half months wait for a hip operation. What’s more, if you include the wait to see a consultant, the average length of time a patient will wait rises to almost 11 months.

These figures, compiled by leading independent medical researchers Dr Foster, are bad news for government targets – with people only being prepared to wait two and a half months for the procedure. This is a long way from the government’s target set at a maximum wait of six months for an operation by 2005 and down to three months some time after that.

The confusion is compounded because two thirds of people say they wouldn’t know where to go to find information on waiting times and one in ten say they didn’t even know these figures were available in the public domain. A third of those polled feel bewildered by the different waiting times cited by different sources.

Dr Doug Wright, clinical development manager at Norwich Union Healthcare commented: "People are not really aware of how long they should expect to wait for an operation, let alone be able to compare different waiting times among different hospitals.”

"That means people aren’t necessarily taking advantage of the information that is available and they may be waiting several months for something like a hip operation in their area, when it could actually be done more quickly elsewhere."

The data supplied by independent medical research specialists Dr Foster, reveals that waiting times have on the whole improved for five of the most common procedures year-on-year. But it’s too soon to incorporate the effects of government initiatives to reduce waiting times, such as diagnosis and treatment centres (DTC), into the 2003 figures.

However, the DTCs being rolled out across the country should cut waiting times by increasing capacity.

For example, the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages the Ravenscourt Park DTC in West London – operational for the past year – has seen a massive reduction in waiting times, from 204 days for a hip replacement (from seeing the consultant to date of procedure) in 2002 to just 30 in 2003.

Roger Taylor, research director at Dr Foster, said: "The increased use of diagnosis and treatment centres across the country is already beginning to have an incredible impact on NHS waiting times as demonstrated by the Ravenscourt Park DTC. The full extent of the reduction will be revealed next year as we continue to monitor the effect they are having."

The most recent waiting times on the NHS’s most common procedures are drawn from Norwich Union Healthcare’s latest waiting list guide 2003 which is part of its online ‘personal health manager’.

Personalhealthmanager.co.uk allows visitors to search waiting list data either by procedure, speciality, specific NHS trusts or trusts within selected postcodes and surrounding areas.

Dr Wright added: "We want to encourage people to do a bit more research on the amount of time they could expect to wait for a procedure. They should be aware that it’s possible to compare the waiting times of NHS trusts in their area, go back to their GP and ask to be referred somewhere that has a shorter waiting list.”

"By giving customers data that’s easy to access and understand we’re enabling them to make this kind of choice, which they haven’t been doing up till now."

This is borne out by the results of another Norwich Union Healthcare survey, in which almost nine in 10 people say they’d never asked to go to a different consultant than the one to which they’d been referred.