Primary care audiology at a glance - end notes

Methodology

This data project was led by the NCHA policy team. To enable providers to collect and report data in a consistent way, the reporting period was set for 1 January 2024 to December 2024. In 2025, primary care audiology providers were asked to contribute to this dataset with a closing date of 27 November 2025

https://www.the-ncha.com/news-and-views/more/432/page/1/ncha-member-update-24-october/#1.

Notes on the reported dataset

• Primary care audiology sites include locations where patients can access care without the need for a GP referral.

• Hearing assessments in this initial dataset include all assessments, including screening tests and pure tone audiometry (PTA). This is because while members reported the number of PTAs separately there was no standardised way to capture hearing screening/hearing assessments that were not PTAs.

• To ensure anonymisation and yet represent meaningful aggregate data, we weighted certain data points. The following datasets were weighted against total volume of PTA performed by audiologists.
  • Waiting time for care.
  • Average age of patient. The current average age is however also based on bands. In future datasets we intend to ask providers to report on the actual average age, helping us refine the weighted average age.
  • Bilateral hearing aid fitting rate. All providers reported a bilateral fitting rate of at least 90%, which is expected given the main population group accessing hearing aids from this service are aged 70 and older and will have a hearing loss in both ears.

• In this first experimental dataset to be published we used a 12-week access to treatment time. The clock starts from contacting the practice through to the patient completing their initial treatment - e.g. include a hearing assessment and fit. Survey feedback indicates people are seen and treated much sooner than 12 weeks on average. We will therefore review the access to treatment window before we rerun the survey in the future.

• Members reported staff headcount. Using NCHA FTE data for a representative sample of NCHA members, we computed an FTE conversion factor of 0.78. Applying this to HCPC data as of December 2024, 4,468 hearing aid dispensers would equate to 3,496 FTEs. In future datasets we plan to do some further work to better estimate a reliable FTE conversion factor as part of our workforce planning priorities.

• If we compare our dataset to BIHIMA data for 2024, it indicates NCHA members that participated in the survey provide c. 90% of all private hearing aids, c.25% of NHS hearing aids and c.40% of all hearing aids. While we recognise that the BIHIMA data represent purchased aids not fitted aids and some aids might be held on inventory or replacement aids, our members run efficient inventory control and therefore we feel reporting market share in this context is a fair reflection. We will keep this under review. In addition, it is important to note BIHIMA reports UK wide NHS hearing aids sales, but NCHA members offer NHS care in c. 50% of NHS regions in England which means in these regions they are providing a significantly greater proportion of all NHS hearing care. Hence the reported data gives a conservative picture of provision.

• Hearing aid sales data has been converted into patients fitted based on the weighted bilateral fitting rate. Aids per person computed as:
  • Total aids fitted *0.08 = number of patients fitted with one aid
  • Total aids fitted - aids fitted to people with one aid = number of aids left to fit
  • Number of aids left to fit/2 = total number fitted with two aids.

• With aural care, we asked about the number of appointments provided rather than ears treated. This therefore represents patients, and the number of ears treated will far exceed this number.

• We also present aggregate data for recorded patient contacts - e.g. assessments, fits, aftercare, follow-up etc. This is a conservative estimate as not all activity is recorded - e.g. patient visits for walk-in repairs etc are not always recorded.