Sciatica · Ipswich · Trauma and orthopaedics
Sciatica waiting time at East Suffolk and North Essex 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. 30 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 East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
How long people have been waiting
5,581
5,110
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 East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust the typical MRI wait is 3 weeks, with 32% waiting over six weeks (August 2026).
See the full MRI queue at Ipswich Hospital and faster scan alternativesNHS hospitals near Ipswich
Ipswich Hospital (current)
0 mi
30 weeks
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Great Yarmouth
41 mi
17 weeks
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Cambridge
46 mi
26 weeks
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust · Harlow
51 mi
30 weeks
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust · Maidstone
62 mi
21 weeks
Whittington Health NHS Trust · Islington
66 mi
27 weeks
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Camden
68 mi
16 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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