31 May 2024

NCHA member update - 31 May

This month:

• Election news
• Hearing aid sales show steady growth
• Girl hears for the first time after pioneering gene therapy
• Children with hearing loss receive payout over 'delayed diagnosis'
• Long waits for NHS audiology appointments
• Antiviral may help reduce hearing loss in mice
• Ears to the ground

Election news

Health is a crucial battleground in the general election, so the campaign began with Labour and the Conservatives promising to cut NHS waiting lists in England by giving patients increased choice and access to care closer to home.
 
Earlier this month, Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, had highlighted how his party would strengthen patient choice, including for adult hearing care services. Read more.
 
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, wrote in The Telegraph that Labour wants the "NHS to form partnerships with the private sector that go beyond just the hospitals". Should his party win the election, he added, it will go further than Sir Tony Blair in using the private sector to ease NHS pressures with a view to clearing the waiting list backlog within five years.
 
Harjit Sandhu, the NCHA's managing director, said: "Throughout this election campaign and beyond, we will continue to engage with everybody across the political spectrum to advocate for rebalancing funding from secondary care to primary care. This is the only way the NHS can meet growing population needs in a sustainable way. We set out how in our vision for primary care audiology."

He added: "Our call to rebalance expenditure is also supported by wider primary care colleagues, health policy experts and the public. A recent report published by the Health Foundation also highlights how the public wants primary and community care to be a higher priority for NHS resources than hospital services."

The NCHA will engage with prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) in the coming weeks and share how primary care audiology can help tackle inequalities in access and outcomes for all. We will also contact members in specific constituencies to help organise practice visits with PPCs and newly elected MPs. Members who wish to participate in our public affairs work should please email [email protected]  
 
Other election news
 
Within the sector, Audiology World News reports on how high street ear and eye care could help relieve NHS waiting list pressures.

Hearing aid sales show steady growth

The British Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers' Association (BIHIMA) has released the latest figures on hearing aid sales to the private and public sectors, showing a steady rise in the first quarter compared with the last quarter of 2024. Read the full story.
 
BIHIMA also announced its continued financial backing for the hearing loss toolkit, a collaboration between the association and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). It provides guidance to ensure GPs are hearing-loss friendly.
 
New features include training on dementia and hearing loss, tinnitus management, balance and vertigo, and paediatric audiology.

Girl hears for the first time after pioneering gene therapy

A gene therapy treatment has restored some hearing to a toddler born with profound bilateral hearing loss.
 
The parents of Opal Sandy, from Oxfordshire, described their amazement when she turned to their clapping just four weeks after the infusion to her right ear at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
 
Opal is the first British participant and the youngest to receive the therapy as part of the CHORD trial's investigation into whether gene therapy can provide hearing for children born with a rare type of hearing loss that causes auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). Read more.

Children with hearing loss receive payout over 'delayed diagnosis'

Two Irish children who claimed their hearing losses were missed when they were younger have settled with the Irish health service over allegedly inadequate assessment and formative years spent without hearing aids.

A girl aged 11 received €280,000 and a boy of 16 received €140,000. The Health Service Executive, Ireland's health service, admitted shortcomings in the assessment and diagnoses by Roscommon/Westmeath audiology services. Read the details.

Long waits for NHS audiology appointments

The Sheffield Wire reports on the experiences of three people struggling to access NHS hearing care, citing long waits from referral to treatment and poor communication, such as telephone-only booking services.
 
A recent report by RNID, 'In their own words', revealed that around five million people who could benefit from hearing aids do not have them, and the accessibility of audiology services is likely to be a factor.
 
The RNID reported that only 53% of NHS audiology services users said they found it easy to make an appointment, compared with 77% of private service users.
 
To tackle these inequalities in access between those with the ability to pay and those who depend on NHS care, the NCHA has called for NHS funded primary care audiology. Read the case for change in primary care audiology.

Antiviral may help reduce hearing loss in mice

Mice treated with the antiviral Tamiflu after ototoxic and noise exposure have shown a reduction in permanent hearing loss of 15-25dB SPL compared with mice not given the antiviral, researchers from the US have revealed.  
 
Treatment with oseltamivir phosphate, commonly prescribed for flu symptoms under the brand name Tamiflu, reduced outer hair cell death in mice after the chemotherapy treatment cisplatin and mitigated cochlear synaptopathy after traumatic noise exposure. The research is yet to be peer-reviewed.

Ears to the ground

• The FODO group, encompassing the NCHA, held its AGM on 15 May
• The INTEGRATE network of ENT clinicians is calling for audiology feedback on tinnitus management
• The deadline for responding to proposed changes to the NHS constitution is approaching. Please send feedback to [email protected]
• The singer-songwriter Huey Lewis talks to MusicRadar about living with Meniere's disease