18 April 2017

New data show more people are choosing community hearing care

18 April 2017

The British and Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association (BIHIMA) has released new data on hearing aid sales in the UK and Ireland.

In total, 1,668,887 hearing aids were sold in 2016 – 82% supplied by the NHS and 18% by the private sector. The BIHIMA data show that nearly 25% of all NHS hearing aids are now provided by community-based hearing care providers.

Harjit Sandhu, Director of Policy and Strategy, NCHA, said:

“These data confirm that more people than ever are choosing NHS community hearing care. When you control for the fact that choice reforms have only been implemented in half of England, then the shift in how patients are accessing NHS hearing care is even more marked. When given a choice patients are choosing to access hearing care closer to home”.

It is ten years since the Department of Health committed to providing NHS hearing care closer to home and out-of-hospital, and next year will mark the 30 years since the RNID (now Action on Hearing Loss) called for community-based hearing care to become the norm in its Case for Change.