General Surgery at NHS Western Isles
At 7 weeks, NHS Western Isles is among the faster boards for general surgery — 2nd shortest of 14.
Waits here have grown sharply over three years — up by around 3 weeks, more than half again.
110 people are on the list here and 48 were treated in the reporting month, so clearing the current queue alone would take about 2 months.
Private prices vary widely: £3,703–£4,842 for inguinal hernia repair, across 4 Scottish providers.
NHS Western Isles covers Stornoway, Benbecula and Castlebay and the surrounding area.
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Waiting on the NHS
General Surgery
NHS Western Isles
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.
7 weeks
Median wait
Half have waited less than this so far — about 7 weeks.
23 weeks
90th percentile wait
1 in 10 have already waited longer than this — about 5 months.
Which way it’s going
Median wait has risen from 3 weeks to 6 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
110 people are waiting here, and 48 were treated in the reporting month. At that rate the existing queue alone takes about 2 months 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
Hernias are usually not urgent, but they can restrict lifting and physical work. Rarely one becomes trapped, which is an emergency and is treated as one.
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
- 5 weeks
- Then being listed to treatment
- 4 weeks
- Roughly, in total
- about 2 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 110 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
General Surgery
Priced as inguinal hernia repair
£3,703–£4,842
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£3,703
- Spire Murrayfield Hospital, Edinburgh£3,950
- Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Glasgow£4,013–£4,842
- Albyn Hospital, Aberdeen£4,406
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: 7 weeks. Typical self-pay cost: £3,703–£4,842.
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: 224 people waiting, median 10 days, 6% over six weeks.
£330
MRI scan (one area)
2 providers: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital, Spire Edinburgh Hospitals
On the NHS here: 141 people waiting, median 30 days, 32% over six weeks.
£470–£625
CT scan (one area)
1 provider: Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital
On the NHS here: 124 people waiting, median 9 days, 3% over six weeks.
£650
NHS diagnostic figures are for NHS Western Isles 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.