Ophthalmology at NHS Orkney
NHS Orkney currently has the longest ophthalmology wait of the 14 boards with a usable figure, at 47 weeks.
Waits here have lengthened over the last 36 months, by around 12 weeks.
Private prices vary widely: £2,700–£3,793 for single-eye cataract surgery, across 6 Scottish 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
Ophthalmology
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.
47 weeks
Median wait
Half have waited less than this so far — about 11 months.
51 weeks
90th percentile wait
1 in 10 have already waited longer than this — about a year.
Which way it’s going
Median wait has risen from 36 weeks to 48 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.
What the wait can mean
You must meet the DVLA eyesight standards to drive. If cataracts take your vision below them, you cannot legally drive until they are treated — for some people that is the whole wait, not just the operation.
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.
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 180 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
Ophthalmology
Priced as single-eye cataract surgery
This is the price for one eye. Many people need both done, usually as two separate operations a few weeks apart, so the total is roughly double.
£2,700–£3,793
Typical self-pay price range
Package price: the procedure, hospital stay and standard follow-up. What else is covered varies by provider.
Based on 6 providers in Scotland
- Ross Hall Hospital, Glasgow£2,700
- Kings Park Hospital, Stirling£2,700
- Albyn Hospital, Aberdeen£2,775
- Nuffield Health Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh£3,268
- Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Glasgow£3,620
- Spire Shawfair Park Hospital, Edinburgh£3,793
These aren’t strictly like-for-like. Nuffield Health Edinburgh Hospital and Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital don’t say either way. Each price links to the page it came from.
Last checked 6 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: 47 weeks. Typical self-pay cost: £2,700–£3,793.
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.