Sciatica · Bedford · Trauma and orthopaedics
Sciatica waiting time at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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weeks
Actual referral-to-treatment wait in August 2026.
NHS RTT data, August 2026
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1Free on the NHS
Stay where you are
No change, you keep your current place. 33 weeks typical wait here.
2Free on the NHS
Switch NHS hospital
Right to Choose lets you ask to be treated at a different NHS hospital.
3Part paid
Part-private, keep your NHS place
Pay for a scan or a first appointment to move sooner, and keep your NHS place.
4Self funded or insured
Go private
Private treatment, self funded or through insurance. Prices vary by clinic.
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About sciatica
Sciatica is pain caused by irritation or pressure on the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back down through the buttock and into each leg.
Read more about sciatica and what treatment involves →More about Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
How long people have been waiting
3,382
4,044
0 to 18 weeks
Over 18 weeks
People on the trauma and orthopaedics waiting list now, split by whether they have passed the 18-week target, August 2026. Whole specialty.
Before treatment: the MRI queue
An MRI scan is one of the scans often used before treatment, and it is a separate NHS queue. At Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the typical MRI wait is 4 weeks, with 33% waiting over six weeks (August 2026).
See the full MRI queue at Bedford Hospital and faster scan alternativesNHS hospitals near Bedford
Bedford Hospital (current)
0 mi
33 weeks
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · Milton Keynes
13 mi
20 weeks
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · North Northamptonshire
22 mi
31 weeks
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Cambridge
26 mi
26 weeks
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust · Buckinghamshire
33 mi
18 weeks
North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust · Peterborough
33 mi
21 weeks
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust · Harlow
34 mi
30 weeks
Weeks waited by patients treated in August 2026, whole specialty, straight-line from this hospital. Switching does not guarantee a shorter wait.
How we know this
NHS RTT data, August 2026.
Trauma and orthopaedics as a whole, not sciatica alone.
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