Its the same in USA if you want to see a specialist. There is a worldwide shortage of qualified doctors.
I waited about 1.5yrs to get a routine endoscopy at northwestern hospital in chicago. We've gone to northwestern in downtown for decades and have never seen waits this bad.
https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/match-day-2023-a-remin...
I'm not sure you can extrapolate that it's worldwide because things are the same in UK and US.
FWIW, I had surgery in Spain recently and had to wait like two-three months tops. Probably depends a lot on the type of surgery and how urgent it is.
Total cost for surgery, follow-up, and 3 days in hospital (he lives in a French Overseas Department so he gets reimbursed): 18,000 Euros.
I’ve been able to get an orthopedic surgery issue diagnosed and booked in weeks (Rush). But routine care with my pain specialist (Northwestern) can need months long lead times.
It took 6 months to get into neurology there, and they rescheduled my 6 month follow-up to be a 14 month follow-up
(I don't know why I hadn't placed you as a Chicago person before; you should come out with us sometime!)