Sciatica · Thanet · Trauma and orthopaedics
Sciatica waiting time at East Kent Hospitals University 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. 46 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 Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
How long people have been waiting
3,606
4,581
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 Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust the typical MRI wait is 6 weeks, with 48% waiting over six weeks (August 2026).
See the full MRI queue at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital and faster scan alternativesNHS hospitals near Thanet
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (current)
0 mi
46 weeks
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust · Southend-on-Sea
33 mi
35 weeks
Medway NHS Foundation Trust · Medway
37 mi
31 weeks
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust · Maidstone
40 mi
21 weeks
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust · Colchester
42 mi
30 weeks
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust · Hastings
49 mi
25 weeks
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust · Havering
54 mi
39 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.
Wait or Pay is independent and is not the NHS. We show the routes and let you choose. Nothing here is medical advice.