Lynda Raitt could not face potentially waiting years to get both knee operations on the NHS so she sought private treatment.
The Aberdeenshire pensioner was told she had up to a six-month wait at British private hospitals, so looked overseas and found a specialist in Poland who could replace both of her arthritis-riddled knees for just over £15,000.
The 66-year-old had always been active but as winter approached in 2021 she struggled to walk or even go to the supermarket.
Ten new national treatment centres are to help tackle waiting lists and deliver at least 40,000 additional procedures per year by 2026.
But at least five will not open as originally scheduled and some of the proposals have still to be agreed.
The Scottish government said addressing long waits was a “key focus of our plans for NHS recovery”.
