Sciatica · St. Helens · Trauma and orthopaedics
Sciatica waiting time at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS 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. 19 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 Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
How long people have been waiting
5,335
2,580
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 Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust the typical MRI wait is 2 weeks, with 14% waiting over six weeks (August 2026).
See the full MRI queue at St Helens Hospital and faster scan alternativesNHS hospitals near St. Helens
St Helens Hospital (current)
0 mi
19 weeks
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Wigan
9 mi
16 weeks
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Liverpool
10 mi
13 weeks
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · Wirral
16 mi
17 weeks
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust · Tameside
27 mi
18 weeks
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust · Kirklees
40 mi
17 weeks
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust · Birmingham
76 mi
15 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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