How long is the wait for a scan in Scotland?
It depends enormously on where you live and which scan you need. Ultrasound runs from 4 days in Orkney to 35 in Lanarkshire. MRI runs from 8 days in Dumfries and Galloway to 33 in the Western Isles.
80,940 people in Scotland are waiting for one of these three scans, as of June 2026.
Every board, fastest first
Median wait, and the share of people who have been waiting more than six weeks — which is the line Public Health Scotland themselves report against.
MRI
- Dumfries and Galloway8 days · 3% over six weeks · 405 waiting
- Borders12 days · 1% over six weeks · 427 waiting
- Forth Valley13 days · 5% over six weeks · 1,161 waiting
- Grampian14 days · 14% over six weeks · 1,452 waiting
- Fife18 days · 7% over six weeks · 1,537 waiting
- Lothian21 days · 24% over six weeks · 3,982 waiting
- Lanarkshire21 days · 26% over six weeks · 1,592 waiting
- Orkney22 days · 21% over six weeks · 114 waiting
- Greater Glasgow and Clyde24 days · 25% over six weeks · 8,029 waiting
- Ayrshire and Arran25 days · 24% over six weeks · 1,454 waiting
- Tayside26 days · 31% over six weeks · 2,857 waiting
- Highland30 days · 38% over six weeks · 1,098 waiting
- Shetland32 days · 32% over six weeks · 112 waiting
- Western Isles33 days · 40% over six weeks · 171 waiting
CT
- Orkney7 days · 0% over six weeks · 49 waiting
- Fife7 days · 1% over six weeks · 743 waiting
- Tayside9 days · 13% over six weeks · 1,697 waiting
- Shetland10 days · 10% over six weeks · 63 waiting
- Western Isles11 days · 6% over six weeks · 159 waiting
- Borders12 days · 2% over six weeks · 413 waiting
- Forth Valley15 days · 17% over six weeks · 1,244 waiting
- Lothian15 days · 13% over six weeks · 2,697 waiting
- Greater Glasgow and Clyde15 days · 6% over six weeks · 5,294 waiting
- Lanarkshire16 days · 9% over six weeks · 1,928 waiting
- Dumfries and Galloway17 days · 8% over six weeks · 765 waiting
- Grampian17 days · 5% over six weeks · 2,004 waiting
- Ayrshire and Arran18 days · 8% over six weeks · 1,166 waiting
- Highland18 days · 27% over six weeks · 863 waiting
Ultrasound
- Orkney4 days · 5% over six weeks · 19 waiting
- Fife7 days · 0% over six weeks · 1,358 waiting
- Highland10 days · 1% over six weeks · 1,121 waiting
- Lothian11 days · 8% over six weeks · 3,944 waiting
- Western Isles11 days · 12% over six weeks · 190 waiting
- Shetland14 days · 39% over six weeks · 131 waiting
- Ayrshire and Arran15 days · 1% over six weeks · 1,569 waiting
- Borders15 days · 4% over six weeks · 768 waiting
- Forth Valley17 days · 16% over six weeks · 2,345 waiting
- Dumfries and Galloway20 days · 16% over six weeks · 1,228 waiting
- Grampian21 days · 23% over six weeks · 3,258 waiting
- Tayside29 days · 34% over six weeks · 5,062 waiting
- Greater Glasgow and Clyde34 days · 40% over six weeks · 10,587 waiting
- Lanarkshire35 days · 40% over six weeks · 5,884 waiting
What the same scan costs privately
Worth knowing because this is the cheap end of private healthcare. A scan costs hundreds rather than the thousands an operation does, which is why a lot of people who would never pay for surgery do pay to find out what is wrong.
- MRI£470–£625
- CT£650
- Ultrasound£330
Those are the scan alone. Privately you also need a consultant to refer you and to read the result, which is £191–£275 on top.
Paying for a scan does not move you up an NHS list, and whether a private result is accepted is a matter for your GP and your board. If a symptom might be serious, see your GP rather than pricing this up — urgent NHS pathways are faster than anything you can buy.
What these figures are, and what they miss
They count people currently on the waiting list, not people who have already had their scan. Somebody referred last week counts as a one-week wait even though their scan is still ahead of them, so the median understates what a new referral faces.
They are also the wait for the scan itself. The report then has to be written and sent back to whoever referred you, and that further wait isn’t published anywhere.
From Public Health Scotland’s diagnostic waiting times publication, June 2026. More on what the figures on this site measure.