NZ Woman Flies 9,000km to Vietnam for Hip Replacement After 4-Year Wait

A 51-year-old New Zealand woman has flown over 9,000 kilometers to Hanoi, Vietnam, for a hip replacement surgery, opting to bypass a four-year wait on her home country's public healthcare system and the high cost of private treatment. The case highlights Vietnam's growing capabilities in advanced medical procedures and its increasing appeal for medical tourism. The patient, who first developed pain in her left hip about 10 years ago, found that walking and daily activities became increasingly difficult. Doctors in New Zealand had informed her years ago that she needed a replacement and placed her on the public system's schedule. She had been on the wait list for four years. Switching to private services in New Zealand would have incurred a cost of nearly NZ$40,000 (US$23,100). After researching Vietnamese surgeons and comparing treatment options across several countries in the region, she chose Viet Duc University Hospital, Vietnam's largest surgical center. According to Dr. Nguyen Manh Khanh, deputy director of Viet Duc University Hospital, the patient's left hip joint was completely destroyed by the time of her admission. She was in severe pain and largely dependent on a wheelchair. Her weight, close to 100 kg, complicated both anesthesia and the surgical procedure. Doctors diagnosed her with avascular necrosis of the femoral head with end-stage hip osteoarthritis, a condition where blood supply to the ball of the joint is cut off, leading to bone collapse. Dr. Khanh attributed the condition to factors including disrupted blood flow to the bone, trauma, autoimmune disease, long-term corticosteroid use, and excess weight. The surgical team performed a total hip replacement through an incision of 5 to 6 cm. Dr. Khanh explained that the thick soft tissue around the hip made the joint considerably deeper than in a typical case. He noted that the smaller opening limited soft-tissue damage, post-operative pain, and recovery time. The patient stood and began walking on the second day after the surgery. Within nearly a week, her wound had healed, her legs were level, the pain was gone, and she could walk unaided. Before the operation, she relied on a cane or crutches for every step and managed pain with painkillers while holding down a job as a property manager and personal assistant. She expressed that the surgery has given her a new lease on life and expects to be able to run again within about three months, something she had not thought possible. She also anticipates being able to drive and take up sports suited to the new joint once she returns home. In New Zealand, Health New Zealand's target is for 95% of patients to receive elective treatment within four months. However, for the quarter to March 2026, only 64.5% of patients received treatment within this timeframe, according to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Waits for hip replacement specifically averaged between 128 and 444 days depending on the hospital as of late January 2025, with about 4,600 people on the lists, RNZ reported. Patients must clear a clinical scoring threshold before joining a list, and some who score below it may face accumulated waits over years without being registered in official waiting-time figures. Health New Zealand is actively working to clear the backlog by purchasing capacity from private hospitals, adding an estimated 21,000 hip, knee, cataract, and other procedures through June 2026. Dr. Khanh commented that the woman's case reflects a growing trend of foreign patients seeking technically demanding procedures in Vietnam. He stated that domestic hospitals have mastered modern joint replacement techniques and can offer them at what he described as reasonable costs, with faster access than in some countries. Viet Duc has treated other foreign patients recently, including an Australian competitive arm wrestler and a Russian patient who underwent endoscopic spine surgery.