Skip to main content

X-ray UK: NHS waits and private options

Plain-film diagnostic imaging, commonly used for bones, joints, chest and dental referral checks. No major private hospital group publishes a quotable price for this procedure. NHS waits vary by trust.

Private price
Not published
NHS median wait (England)
N/A
Specialty: Diagnostic Imaging
Long-tail wait (92nd percentile)
N/A
patients waiting

According to TreatCompare analysis, NHS waits for x-ray vary by trust and city.

According to TreatCompare analysis of price lists published by Nuffield Health and Spire Healthcare, neither operator publishes a quotable price for private x-ray.

According to TreatCompare analysis, users comparing x-ray should check local NHS wait by city or postcode before deciding whether private self-pay, insurance or staying on the NHS list is the better route.

TreatCompare NHS wait and private price model. NHS data month: Jul 2026.

Important context

NHS waiting-time figures are published at trust or specialty level. Private prices are read from individual hospitals’ own published price lists and cover two hospital groups rather than the whole private market; each operator defines its own inclusions, so their figures are shown separately and not averaged. Local eligibility, referral route, clinical urgency, provider package and insurance status can change the real-world choice. TreatCompare is for comparison only and is not medical, legal or financial advice.

Source type
Official NHS waiting-time data and private price model
Primary source
NHS England Referral to Treatment waiting-time data
Reporting period
Jul 2026
Last updated
2026-09-11
Figure type
Mixed sources
Use
Research and comparison only

Are you a clinic, provider or data owner?

If you believe information on this page is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or presented without necessary context, contact us with the page URL and supporting evidence. We review correction requests promptly, but they are not automatically accepted.

Nuffield Health and Spire Healthcare publish no price for x-ray

These are the two operators whose published price lists we read — 71 of their 82 UK hospitals publish one — and neither prices this procedure in a way that can be quoted. Where a price is listed at all it is banded by an internal code with nothing published to say what each band covers, so there is no figure we can honestly attach to this procedure. Other operators may publish one; we do not yet read them, and we would rather say that than imply the market is silent.

Ask the hospital for a written quote before booking. The NHS waiting-time figures on this page are unaffected — those come from NHS England and cover every trust.

UK private hospital scrape signals

Checked 5 private provider sources on 9 Sept 2026; 5 returned crawlable signals. 7 crawlable GBP price signals captured. A further 2 figures below are recorded by hand from a provider page that blocks automated reading, and were not re-read on this date.

ProviderSignalCaptured valueSource
360MedPrice
X-ray
£99Provider page
Cobalt HealthPrice
X-ray
£149Provider page
Oryon ImagingPrice
X-ray
£70Provider page
Scan.com UKPriceRecorded by hand
X-ray scan from-price
£95Provider page
Vista HealthPriceRecorded by hand
X-ray scan from-price
£99Provider page
Vista HealthPrice
Orbital X-Ray Only
£99Provider page
Vista HealthPrice
X-ray Fixed price
£99Provider page
Oryon ImagingAvailable
X-ray
Mentioned in crawlable text; no nearby price capturedProvider page

Help improve this dataset

Seen a different x-ray price?

Send the provider, price, inclusions and source date. We review submissions before publishing and use them to catch stale quotes, missing fees and better local options.

Compare your route

Choose the right x-ray comparison route

People often start with the national price, then drill into a city, postcode area or referral route. These links keep that path visible from the top of the page.

Finance options

Decision paths

Compare x-ray waits, prices and next actions

These pages are most useful when visitors move from the national benchmark into a local wait, private price range, referral route or price-update action.

Track x-ray waits and prices

Get notified when we update the private price range or add new provider context.

Alert types

We'll send a confirmation link first. No marketing — alerts only. Unsubscribe with one click in any email.

NHS wait by city — fastest first

CityMedian waitCompare locally

Looking for x-ray waits by postcode?

We also publish wait times by postcode area, mapped to the NHS trust most likely to accept your GP referral.

See x-ray by postcode area →

All English cities