India vs UK: paediatric therapy waiting times and private costs

How long is the actual NHS wait right now

As of current NHS data, the national average wait for a child's first NHS speech and language therapy appointment sits around 46-49 weeks, close to 11 months, though this varies significantly by area, with some trusts seeing children within around 6 months and others exceeding a year. Community paediatric services more broadly, including autism and ADHD assessment pathways, carry similarly long waits: recent analysis found 55% of children on community-care waiting lists nationally are waiting specifically for community paediatric services, with 21% waiting for speech and language therapy.

The scale of the backlog is significant. Community-services waiting lists, which include children's therapy alongside other services, stand at close to 1.2 million nationally. The government has set targets to bring 80% of community health activity within 18 weeks by 2028/29 and to eliminate waits over 52 weeks by 2026/27, which signals the scale of the current gap between demand and NHS capacity rather than an immediate fix.

What this means for a family right now

A near-year-long wait for a first appointment isn't a worst case, it's close to the current average. For a family whose child needs support now, particularly during a developmentally important window, that wait has a real cost even though no invoice is attached to it. This is the gap that leads some UK families to look at private options, whether locally or abroad.

What private therapy costs in the UK

Private speech and language therapy or occupational therapy in the UK typically runs GBP 80-150 per session, roughly USD 100-190 depending on the exchange rate and region. Unlike NHS care, private therapy has no waiting list in the same sense, but the ongoing cost of weekly or twice-weekly private sessions adds up quickly over months or years, and most UK private health insurance policies offer limited or no cover for ongoing paediatric therapy.

What the same intensity costs, and takes, in Delhi NCR

A comparable therapy session in Delhi NCR runs roughly USD 8-18, a small fraction of the UK private rate. More relevantly for a family weighing a wait against a trip: a 2-week intensive block in Delhi NCR, covering daily sessions across multiple disciplines, runs around USD 4,800-6,800, with no waiting list beyond the time it takes to plan the trip itself. A 4-week deep-intervention block runs around USD 8,500-12,500.

The comparison isn't simply cost. It's time. A family who books a Delhi NCR trip for 6-8 weeks from now can be receiving daily multidisciplinary therapy well before an NHS referral made today would even reach a first appointment.

What a concentrated trip cannot replace

A therapy block abroad is not a substitute for ongoing local support, and it shouldn't be framed as one. A 2-4 week intensive is most valuable as a way to make meaningful progress on specific goals, build a concrete home carryover plan, and get clear written documentation, not as a one-time fix that removes the need for continued support at home. Families juggling both an NHS referral and a private trip often use the trip to make progress while waiting, then continue with NHS or local private support once seen.

Questions worth asking before deciding

Ask your current NHS trust for their actual current average wait, not the national figure, since local variation is large. Ask a Delhi NCR provider exactly what's included in a quoted package and what documentation you'll receive to share with your child's UK-based team afterward. And consider whether your child's needs suit a concentrated block, some do, particularly speech, OT, and behaviour support, while others benefit more from steady, lower-intensity local input.

The honest bottom line

Neither path is automatically right. An NHS wait of 6-18 months is real and NHS care, once it starts, comes at no direct cost. A concentrated trip to Delhi NCR costs money and travel but removes the wait and can deliver more therapy hours in a shorter window than the equivalent time spent waiting. For many families, the two aren't mutually exclusive: a trip can bridge the gap while an NHS referral is still pending.