Clinical guidance
As the association for hearing care providers in the UK, NCHA supports evidence-based practice. To support all members, in this section our professional advisers signpost you to authoritative resources on matters of hearing health and clinical practice [1].
This should be read alongside our summary of important NICE guidelines and standards.
BMJ Best Practice
BMJ Best Practice is designed to support qualified health care professionals to make informed decisions about prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ENT conditions. This for example includes an open source section on earwax impaction.
British Society Of Audiology
The British Society of Audiology (BSA) is the sector’s independent scientific body which aims to advance audiological research, learning, practice and impact. The BSA is a registered charity and operates in the public interest. It produces guidance for audiology in the form of recommended procedures and other publication. These resources are open to all.
Cochrane library
The Cochrane Library provides access to databases of high quality and independent evidence to inform decision-making in hearing care. You can read the ENT section, which includes over 190 systematic reviews and over 40 protocols. It includes a systematic review on the benefits of hearing aids; Hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss in adults.
The National Institute For Health Research evidence
The National Institute for Health aims to help people make informed decisions about health care, social care and public health – Access here.
NICE - Hearing problems
The NICE evidence portal provides access to evidence-based information from trustworthy sources. The search function also has some very helpful filters such as sources accredited by NICE and commissioning guides.
Alternatively, you can access an overview of NICE guidelines on our website.
NICE guidelines are officially written for England only. There is, however, a Service Level Agreement in place in Wales. Decisions on whether to adopt these guidelines in Northern Ireland or Scotland are made on a case by case basis. Northern Ireland fully endorsed NG98 in 2018.
Updates
Originally published: October 2016
Reviewed: December 2025
Next review date: December 2028
This guidance was last reviewed in December 2025. No changes were made to the content. Website links were updated. The next review date is December 2028
References and notes
[1] NCHA operates this and other pages on its website to allow information to be freely and readily accessible to hearing care providers operating in the UK. We use our best efforts to only signpost members to trusted sources here and elsewhere, but we cannot offer guarantees that the information contained on the recommended sites will be accurate, complete and current at any given time. We therefore take no responsibility for loss or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from the use of services or information provided by the maintainers of these links.
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