Neurosurgery at NHS Lothian
At 17 weeks, NHS Lothian is among the faster boards for neurosurgery — 3rd shortest of 4.
Waits here have been falling, down by around 6 weeks over three years.
522 people are on the list here and 85 were treated in the reporting month, so clearing the current queue alone would take about 6 months.
Privately, lumbar decompression (1 or 2 levels) costs much the same wherever you go in Scotland — £12,293–£12,383 across 2 providers.
NHS Lothian covers Edinburgh, Livingston, Musselburgh, Dalkeith and Bathgate and the surrounding area.
Looking for a different board or specialty? Use the picker.
Waiting on the NHS
Neurosurgery
NHS Lothian
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.
17 weeks
Median wait
Half have waited less than this so far — about 4 months.
59 weeks
90th percentile wait
1 in 10 have already waited longer than this — about a year.
Which way it’s going
Median wait has fallen from 23 weeks to 17 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
522 people are waiting here, and 85 were treated in the reporting month. At that rate the existing queue alone takes about 6 months to clear.
That’s a floor, not a forecast — it assumes nobody else joins the list, and people join every day.
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
- 18 weeks
- Then being listed to treatment
- 8 weeks
- Roughly, in total
- about 6 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 522 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
Neurosurgery
Priced as lumbar decompression (1 or 2 levels)
Spinal surgery rather than brain surgery — lumbar decompression is one of the commonest neurosurgical operations and one of the few with a published price. Other neurosurgery costs very different amounts.
£12,293–£12,383
Typical self-pay price range
Package price: the procedure, hospital stay and standard follow-up. What else is covered varies by provider.
Based on 2 providers in Scotland
- Ross Hall Hospital, Glasgow£12,293
- Albyn Hospital, Aberdeen£12,383
Last checked 5 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: 17 weeks. Typical self-pay cost: £12,293–£12,383.
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: 3,788 people waiting, median 10 days, 10% over six weeks.
£330
MRI scan (one area)
2 providers: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Spire Edinburgh Hospitals
On the NHS here: 4,978 people waiting, median 28 days, 38% over six weeks.
£470–£625
CT scan (one area)
1 provider: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital
On the NHS here: 3,296 people waiting, median 18 days, 22% over six weeks.
£650
NHS diagnostic figures are for NHS Lothian 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.