If you’re considering hip or knee replacement surgery, one of the most useful things you can do is look beyond reviews and check a surgeon’s actual recorded outcomes. In the UK, that data exists – and it’s publicly available.
What is the National Joint Registry?
The National Joint Registry (NJR) has collected data on joint replacement surgery in England and Wales since 2003, and now covers Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Guernsey too. Every hip and knee replacement carried out in the UK is recorded against it, which means patients can see how an individual surgeon’s results compare to the national average – not marketing claims, but figures drawn directly from surgical outcomes.
The NJR tracks revision rates – how often a replacement needs to be redone – and mortality following surgery, plotting each surgeon against national benchmarks based on the types of patients they treat. This matters because a surgeon who takes on more complex cases will naturally show up differently to one who performs straightforward primary replacements, and the NJR’s comparative charts are built to account for that.
Mr Shah’s NJR data
Mr Shah has been recorded on the NJR since 1993, with data reflecting more than 30 years of practice and over 10,000 hip and knee procedures, including complex revision surgery. His activity is recorded across Goring Hall Hospital, St Richard’s Hospital and Worthing Hospital.
Why outcomes data matters
Patient reviews are valuable for understanding the experience of care – how it felt to be treated, how well things were explained, how supported someone felt during recovery. But they can’t tell you about clinical outcomes in a comparable way, because reviews aren’t standardised or independently verified.
NJR data is different. It’s independently collected rather than self-reported, standardised so it can be fairly compared across surgeons and adjusted for case complexity, and comprehensive – covering every recorded procedure rather than a self-selected sample of patients who chose to leave a review.
For a decision as significant as joint replacement surgery, having both – genuine patient experience and independently verified outcomes data – gives a much fuller picture than either alone.
Where to check for yourself
Mr Shah’s full NJR profile, including surgeon-level outcome charts, is publicly available through the NJR Surgeon and Hospital Profile service. If you’re considering surgery, it’s well worth looking at alongside any other research you do.
View Mr Nirav Shah’s National Joint Registry profile
If you’d like to discuss your options with Mr Shah, get in touch to arrange a consultation.
