Ear, Nose & Throat at NHS Orkney
NHS Orkney currently has the longest ear, nose & throat wait of the 13 boards with a usable figure, at 32 weeks.
Waits here have grown sharply over three years — up by around 30 weeks, more than half again.
Privately, adult tonsillectomy costs much the same wherever you go in Scotland — £3,673–£3,688 across 3 providers.
NHS Orkney covers Kirkwall and Stromness and the surrounding area.
Looking for a different board or specialty? Use the picker.
Waiting on the NHS
Ear, Nose & Throat
NHS Orkney
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.
32 weeks
Median wait
Half have waited less than this so far — about 7 months.
36 weeks
90th percentile wait
1 in 10 have already waited longer than this — about 8 months.
Which way it’s going
Median wait has risen from 3 weeks to 34 weeks over the last 11 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.
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.
This is the wait from being listed for treatment, not from seeing your GP. The outpatient wait to see the specialist comes first and no figure is published for it here.
Inpatient and day case figures for June 2026, based on 33 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
Ear, Nose & Throat
Priced as adult tonsillectomy
Priced as an adult tonsillectomy. ENT covers a wide range of operations and the others cost different amounts — this is one common procedure, not a guide to the specialty.
£3,673–£3,688
Typical self-pay price range
Package price: the procedure, hospital stay and standard follow-up. What else is covered varies by provider.
Based on 3 providers in Scotland
- Ross Hall Hospital, Glasgow£3,673
- Kings Park Hospital, Stirling£3,673
- Albyn Hospital, Aberdeen£3,688
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: 32 weeks. Typical self-pay cost: £3,673–£3,688.
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: 149 people waiting, median 27 days, 33% over six weeks.
£330
MRI scan (one area)
2 providers: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Spire Edinburgh Hospitals
On the NHS here: 105 people waiting, median 26 days, 26% over six weeks.
£470–£625
CT scan (one area)
1 provider: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital
On the NHS here: 22 people waiting, median 8 days, 0% over six weeks.
£650
NHS diagnostic figures are for NHS Orkney 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.