NHS footwear: what you can actually get

There is no public catalogue

NHS footwear is not a product range you browse. It is a clinical prescription: an orthotist or podiatrist assesses your feet, decides what is needed, and orders it from a contracted supplier. The contracts differ between trusts, so what your neighbour was given in a different county may not be an option where you are.

Broadly, three things get issued. Insoles and orthoses, custom or off-the-shelf, are the most common by far. Stock orthopaedic footwear — ready-made deep or wide shoes held by the service — comes next. Bespoke footwear, made to a cast of your foot, is reserved for feet that nothing off the shelf will fit safely.

Who tends to qualify

Provision is risk-led rather than comfort-led. The people most likely to be given footwear are those with diabetes and a foot at moderate or high risk, particularly with a history of ulceration or Charcot changes; people with rheumatoid arthritis and significant foot deformity; people with a substantial leg length difference; people with severe fixed deformity from any cause; and people with lymphoedema where nothing retail will fit.

Wide feet on their own, or feet that ache in ordinary shoes, will not usually meet the threshold. That is not a judgement about how much it bothers you — it is a rationing line drawn around tissue damage risk.

How to get referred

Start with your GP, or your existing specialist team if you have one. Diabetes patients can often self-refer to podiatry; rheumatology, vascular and lymphoedema services can all refer directly to orthotics. Ask specifically for a referral to orthotics if footwear is what you need, because podiatry and orthotics are different services in most trusts and a referral to the wrong one costs months.

Take your current shoes to the appointment, including the pair that hurts. Wear marks tell an assessor more than a description does.

Waiting times, honestly

Waits vary enormously by trust and by urgency. An urgent diabetic foot referral can be seen within days. A routine orthotics appointment for footwear is commonly measured in months, and if bespoke shoes are prescribed, manufacture and fitting adds more time again — casting, a fitting appointment, adjustments, then supply.

You can ask your service for their current wait, ask to be added to a cancellation list, and ask whether an interim solution exists while you wait. Those three questions are worth asking every time.

What to wear while you wait

Something wide enough, deep enough and adjustable enough not to cause damage in the meantime. The practical checklist is short: no seams inside where the foot presses, room for your toes to lie flat, a fastening you can adjust as the foot changes, and a fit you verify by looking at your skin rather than by how it feels.

If you are already under a foot service, take any shoe you are considering to your next appointment. Clinicians would far rather glance at a shoe you are about to rely on than treat what happens if it turns out to be wrong.

If you are given footwear you cannot get on with

Go back. Prescribed footwear that lives in a cupboard protects nobody, and services would rather adjust or re-prescribe than have you back in unsuitable shoes. Adjustments are normal and expected — say what is wrong, where, and at what point in the day.

Common questions

Where to go next