Sorry about your problems. As an individual who has experienced a few ops in my life, six (it could be 7?) hernia operations, three exploratory investigations (one definitely made my eyes water!) and a Prostate surgically removed I can really sympathise. I have experienced first hand how the NHS has deteriorated in terms of waiting times, seeing a GP and so on, Brexit has driven so many valuable staff away and the remaining people are increasingly 'put upon' to do more and more just so the Government can 'keep up appearances' and try to make out that all is well. 50,000 Nurses, I don't believe a word of it!!! Where I live the wait for a GP is three weeks if you are lucky! Definitely not a good era or time to be ill.
I don't know if this is of help but my wife has problem knees and has to have regular Cortisone injections, whilst a mate down the pub has what I think is the same problem but his GP injects him with something else, a 'something, something acid.' It was very interesting to my wife when she asked her GP would the 'acid' work better for her and his face went blank! She guessed he did not know of it?
Sometimes I'm sure that the doctor or consultant you see can make a difference to what you get, or are offered as treatment. From my personal experience, I always try to seek out the younger doctors, in particular, those from Asian backgrounds who for me always seem to be keen, well-read, ambitious and most importantly are up to date with modern medical knowledge and procedures. We obviously experience things in different ways so in my case would I actively seek out an older 'English' doctor, I would of course, but if there was a younger choice as I've described I know which route I would prefer.
As you have written about an 'arthroscopy,' I know nothing about what that is but it might be worth asking if you have a da Vinci robot in your hospital and if so would this be an option for you? I had my Prostate out in this way and the robot only left me with 5 small puncture marks on my abdomen. Almost easy peasy! They healed in a few days but the most important thing for me was that the robot was super accurate in what it did. Lastly, if your consultant offers you a procedure and if its going to be a long wait could you get it done more quickly elswhere in the country?