Theatre Nurse Salary UK 2026/27 (& ODP Pay)

A theatre (perioperative) nurse is a registered nurse — usually adult field — with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), who has chosen to specialise in the operating theatre environment. An Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) is a separate, distinct profession trained specifically for perioperative practice, registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) rather than the NMC. Both work across the same three theatre phases — anaesthetics, scrub/surgery and recovery — and are typically paid on the same Agenda for Change bands for equivalent roles, but they hold different professional registrations and, in ODPs' case, a different foundation qualification (a specific ODP degree rather than a nursing degree).

Both newly qualified theatre nurses (NMC-registered) and newly qualified ODPs (HCPC-registered) typically start at Band 5, point 1 — £32,074 a year in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for 2026/27. The starting pay is the same regardless of which of the two professional routes you trained through.

Anaesthetics (supporting the anaesthetist and monitoring the patient during induction and throughout surgery), scrub/surgery (working directly at the sterile field, passing instruments and managing the surgical field), and recovery/PACU (post-anaesthesia care, monitoring patients as they wake and stabilise). Most theatre staff, whether nurses or ODPs, rotate across all three areas, especially earlier in their career, and Agenda for Change doesn't pay one area more than another at the same band — the pay difference is about seniority and specialism, not which of the three areas you're working in on a given day.

Senior scrub nurse/ODP roles — often specialising in a specific surgical specialty such as orthopaedics, cardiac, neurosurgery or ophthalmics — are typically Band 6, reflecting the technical depth and instrument knowledge that specialty scrub work requires, alongside supervisory or mentoring responsibility for more junior staff.

Yes. Surgical First Assistant (or Advanced Scrub Practitioner) is an established extended role — usually Band 6 or 7 — where an experienced theatre nurse or ODP takes on tasks traditionally done by a junior surgeon's assistant, such as tissue retraction, wound closure and direct surgical assistance, typically requiring additional accredited training. Some theatre practitioners also progress into broader Advanced Clinical Practice roles at Band 7/8a, particularly in pre-operative assessment or perioperative medicine.

It depends on the specific unit and whether emergency/trauma theatres are covered. Elective (planned) theatre lists commonly run largely daytime, weekday hours with limited unsocial hours exposure. Emergency theatres, trauma lists, obstetric theatres and any unit providing 24/7 or on-call cover for emergency surgery do attract standard Agenda for Change unsocial hours and, in many units, an additional on-call allowance — so the working pattern, more than the job title, determines how much unsocial hours pay is realistically part of the role.

There's no fixed or guaranteed timeline. In practice, most Band 6 senior/specialist scrub, anaesthetics or recovery posts expect solid, broad experience across theatre lists and often a specific surgical specialty focus, which for many practitioners takes a few years to build — but it depends heavily on local vacancy timing and specialty demand rather than a fixed number of years of service.

No — they're registered with different bodies. ODPs must maintain registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), which also regulates professions such as physiotherapists, radiographers and paramedics. Theatre nurses maintain their registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the same regulator covering all fields of nursing and midwifery. Both registrations carry ongoing revalidation requirements, but through separate processes specific to each regulator.

Not necessarily by profession alone — both theatre nurses and ODPs commonly rotate through and specialise in the anaesthetics phase of theatre practice, and Anaesthesia Associate (a newer, distinct advanced role, separately regulated) is open to suitably experienced practitioners from either a nursing or ODP background who complete the required postgraduate training, rather than being restricted to one route.

The band structure is UK-wide, but the actual figures differ under Scotland's own pay deal. For 2026/27, NHS Scotland's Band 6 runs from £43,231 to £52,679, against £39,959 to £48,117 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.