How long is an “urgent” referral waiting period?

[Groovy99]

Been referred to a neurosurgeon and spinal surgeon GP said he put it through urgently but couldn’t say how long exactly he just said ideally a few weeks buy due to the state of things he can’t promise me that. Any experiences?

Up to 6 weeks in my experience but at times sooner - very helpful I know… But the state of the NHS currently - how long is a piece of string?

Phone them direct the hospital and find out

When i got referred under the skin cancer scheme, it was suppose to be 2 weeks, however it was actually 10 weeks

I’d say 6 weeks

3 months so far for mine

My urgent referral to neuro ophthalmology is 16 weeks.

Different area but I had a Gynae referral done last year after presenting to A&E. Put through on the urgent pathway as I need surgery to remove a very large dermoid cyst diagnosed by A&E after a scan. The GP told me I was secondary on the list only to cancer patients.

Referral August 2021. Gynae appt Oct 2022. My consultant confirmed the only reason I'd got in within 2 years was because I was placed on the urgent list 🙄

My daughter was very recently an urgent referral, she is 18 so not a child referral and it was 8 days when she saw the specialist consultation, further urgent referral for another scan, another 8 days.

My urgent referral to neurology was two months before receiving a letter with an appointment date…which was a further 4 weeks later.

It completely depends on the procedure / department.

My "urgent" MRI should have been within 48 hours (but took longer)

My wait for "Urgent gynea
surgary" was 4 - 6 weeks but actually took 20 days.
Gynea Cancer surgery wait (which is the level up from urgent) was 14 days.

In other cancers it might be 62 days.

It really does depend what it is as to how long "urgent" is.

I also had an Urgent CT Scan which happened within an hour....

So from my experiance anything from 1 hour to at least 62 days