A P.E.I. Couple Borrowed $25,000 to Skip the Hip-Replacement Wait
Neil and Janet Payne call it “Le Hip Trip.” The Kinkora, P.E.I., couple were looking at a wait of up to a year and a half for Neil's hip replacement, so they borrowed $25,000 and drove to a private clinic in Quebec instead. The nickname is charming; the number is not. Eighteen months of waiting is a medical problem, and a five-figure loan plus an interprovincial drive is the workaround — one available only to people who can raise the money and make the trip. Every queue has an exit price, and this couple put a figure on one.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The telling detail is the nickname. A wait long enough that the workaround gets a vacation-style name is a wait that has stopped feeling temporary.
The nickname is the funny part. The $25,000 is the story: this is really about who can afford to leave the queue.
Both can be true. The queue is the problem, and the exit from it costs more than many households have sitting in a line of credit.