Trauma & Orthopaedics at NHS Grampian
NHS Grampian currently has the longest trauma & orthopaedics wait of the 13 boards with a usable figure, at 30 weeks.
That has barely shifted over the last 36 months.
4,083 people are on the list here and 287 were treated in the reporting month, so clearing the current queue alone would take about a year.
Privately, primary total hip replacement runs £13,900–£15,832 across 4 Scottish providers.
NHS Grampian covers Aberdeen, Elgin, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Inverurie and Banff and the surrounding area.
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Waiting on the NHS
Trauma & Orthopaedics
NHS Grampian
How long people currently on the list have waited so far. Someone referred last week counts as a one-week wait, so this reads low too — just less so.
30 weeks
Median wait
Half have waited less than this so far — about 7 months.
103 weeks
90th percentile wait
1 in 10 have already waited longer than this — about 2 years.
Which way it’s going
Median wait has barely moved from 31 weeks to 30 weeks over the last 36 months.
This tracks the same measure you have selected above. PHS compute these medians from exact days while the headline figure is derived from wait bands, so the last point sits near but not exactly on it.
The size of the queue
4,083 people are waiting here, and 287 were treated in the reporting month. At that rate the existing queue alone takes about a year to clear.
That’s a floor, not a forecast — it assumes nobody else joins the list, and people join every day.
What the wait can mean
Hip and knee problems severe enough to need replacement often limit walking, working and sleeping, and that does not pause while you wait.
Tell your GP if things get worse while you’re waiting. Clinical urgency, not the calendar, decides where you sit on the list.
How does your own wait compare?
A median describes the middle. If you’ve been waiting a long time, it probably describes nothing like your experience.
The whole journey
- GP referral to seeing a specialist
- 15 weeks
- Then being listed to treatment
- 22 weeks
- Roughly, in total
- about 9 months
These two always count people who finished each stage, whichever measure you pick above — a total built from people still queuing would be meaningless, since anyone waiting for treatment finished the first leg long ago. Still two medians from two different groups, so treat it as a rough expectation rather than a prediction. Most waiting time headlines quote only the second figure.
Inpatient and day case figures for June 2026, based on 4,083 people on the list, published by Public Health Scotland. Derived from banded figures, so they are close estimates rather than exact. Your own wait depends on clinical urgency.
Paying privately
Trauma & Orthopaedics
Priced as primary total hip replacement
£13,900–£15,832
Typical self-pay price range
Package price: the procedure, hospital stay and standard follow-up. What else is covered varies by provider.
Based on 4 providers in Scotland
- Ross Hall Hospital, Glasgow£13,900
- Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Glasgow£15,057
- Albyn Hospital, Aberdeen£15,345
- Spire Murrayfield Hospital, Edinburgh£15,832
These aren’t strictly like-for-like. Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital doesn’t say either way. Each price links to the page it came from.
Last checked 2 August 2026. Prices are Scotland-wide, not specific to your health board — self-pay patients can be treated at any private hospital. A quote for your own case may fall outside this range.
Median wait: 30 weeks. Typical self-pay cost: £13,900–£15,832.
Paying to find out, rather than paying to fix it
Some people pay privately for a consultation or a scan, then take the results back to the NHS. It costs hundreds rather than thousands, and what it buys is a diagnosis — not a place further up any queue.
Initial consultant appointment
4 providers: Spire Edinburgh Hospitals, Ross Hall Hospital, Albyn Hospital, Kings Park Hospital
£191–£275
Ultrasound scan
1 provider: Nuffield Health Edinburgh Hospital
On the NHS here: 4,268 people waiting, median 30 days, 39% over six weeks.
£330
MRI scan (one area)
2 providers: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Spire Edinburgh Hospitals
On the NHS here: 1,513 people waiting, median 16 days, 18% over six weeks.
£470–£625
CT scan (one area)
1 provider: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital
On the NHS here: 1,090 people waiting, median 10 days, 3% over six weeks.
£650
NHS diagnostic figures are for NHS Grampian as at 2026-03, and count people currently on the list rather than how long completed patients waited. That dataset is published a few months behind the treatment waits above.
A scan does not change your position on the NHS list by itself. What it can do is establish how urgent your case is, and urgency is what determines priority. Whether a private result is accepted, and what happens next, is a matter for your GP and your health board — ask them before spending anything. Scan prices usually exclude the consultant appointment needed to refer you and to interpret the result.