Sciatica · Exeter · Trauma and orthopaedics
Sciatica waiting time at Royal Devon University Healthcare 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. 40 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 Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
How long people have been waiting
4,971
5,131
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 Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust the typical MRI wait is 5 weeks, with 42% waiting over six weeks (August 2026).
See the full MRI queue at Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital and faster scan alternativesNHS hospitals near Exeter
Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (current)
0 mi
40 weeks
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust · Somerset
26 mi
37 weeks
Bristol NHS Foundation Trust · Bristol, City of
65 mi
23 weeks
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust · Bath and North East Somerset
67 mi
12 weeks
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust · Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
67 mi
23 weeks
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust · Cornwall
76 mi
32 weeks
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust · Wiltshire
78 mi
21 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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