29 January 2021

Member update – 29 January 2021

In this week’s update:

• Vaccination update
• North Staffordshire CCG partially reverses rationing policy
• Are you ready for Tinnitus Week 2021?
• New study to investigate links between hearing loss and Covid-19
• RCCP merger consultation  

Vaccination update

Please read our detailed vaccination update on 22 January and share this with sector colleagues. This week, we provide an update on each home nation.

England

The NCHA policy team is in contact with an increasing number of CCGs across England and is adding community audiology practices and staff to local vaccination lists. Please can members look up which CCG their practice falls under using this tool and email this to [email protected].

Northern Ireland

There is no further update this week. Please contact us if you have practices in Northern Ireland. 

Scotland

The Director for Covid-19 vaccination delivery has now written to confirm how frontline audiology teams will be vaccinated. Please read this 28 January letter in full and follow the instructions set by each Health Board.   

Wales

Thank you to members who responded to our call to action and contacted us about practices in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area. If you own or work at a practice in that Health Board area and are still awaiting instructions on the vaccination programme, please email us at [email protected].

We now ask members with practices in the Cwm Taf Health Board area to email us at [email protected].

North Staffordshire CCG partially reverses rationing policy

Several years after a Cochrane review and NICE guideline showed hearing aids are effective for adults with hearing loss, North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has lifted some restrictions on patients access to NHS hearing care.  

The CCG’s belated decision to lift restrictions for patients with a moderate hearing loss however suggests the CCG’s governing board has still not fully considered NICE’s independent clinical and economic evaluation, nor the public health nature of unaddressed hearing loss.   Read the CCG statement.

Are you ready for Tinnitus Week 2021?

Next week (1-7 February) marks Tinnitus Week, with the BTA focused on campaigning to make sure that everyone with tinnitus gets the right information, from the right place, at the right time. Learn more and take part by visiting the BTA.

New study to investigate links between hearing loss and Covid-19

The NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) will research the impact Covid-19 has on the auditory system, and will include an analysis of the number and severity of Covid-19 related hearing disorders in the UK. The research is funded by Manchester University, RNID and Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust (DCEPT). Learn more.

RCCP merger consultation  

Following the announcement in December that the RCCP was at an advanced stage of negotiation with the Academy for Healthcare Science to merge, the RCCP has now completed its consultation. You can read the NCHA’s response on our policy submissions page.