28 June 2024
NCHA member update - 28 June
This month:
- New report looks to high street to help audiology
- Patients need access to NHS-funded earwax services
- Research suggests 18 million have hearing loss
- More success in gene therapy trial
- Ears to the ground
- Health policy
New report looks to high street to help audiology
Primary care audiology features prominently in a new sector report calling for a cross-sector approach to tackling long waits for NHS hearing care.
It's time to talk about hearing - the 2024 hearing health report calls for a nationwide primary care community audiology service to ease pressure on GPs and hospital departments. It urges politicians and policymakers to make more effective use of the capacity and expertise that already exists in community services.
Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, who has a hearing loss, introduces the report by talking about long waits and the postcode lottery in accessing hearing care. "For most people who begin to lose their hearing as they get older, high-street audiologists are fully qualified to treat them," she says.
Kevin Munro, Ewing professor of audiology, NIHR Manchester biological research centre, says in the report that addressing unmet hearing needs is a social responsibility: "As a profession we need to work together to show policymakers that hearing interventions reduce healthcare costs because they help people to maintain independence. I welcome initiatives that genuinely seek to move the audiology profession forward and I hope this report prompts positive and fruitful dialogue for patient benefit."
The report, which was commissioned by Specsavers, says: "Community audiology can be complementary to NHS services, relieving waiting lists and releasing capacity for paediatric audiology and adults who have lost their hearing due to illness or injury, or have other needs which require the specialist services that can only be provided in hospital."
Changes will come about by tackling workforce shortages and through cross-sector collaboration. "The entire sector must work together to develop creative solutions to shape the workforce to meet current and future demand," it concludes.
The NCHA, which published its case for community hearing care in Primary Care Audiology on World Hearing Day, welcomes this latest call to commission NHS funded primary care audiology.
Patients need access to NHS-funded earwax services
The NCHA has renewed its call for the NHS to fund earwax removal in primary care audiology, offering the service in primary and community care settings as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
RNID research shows that 2.3 million people in the UK require earwax removal every two years. A survey of people who experienced wax build-up found that two-thirds had been told that earwax removal was no longer available on the NHS.
GPs and hospital ENT departments can no longer meet demand, leaving those who cannot afford to pay with untreated, impacted wax. The condition is often accompanied by hearing loss, which can negatively affect relationships, social interaction and mental health.
The NCHA calls for the NHS to offer eligible patients access to dewaxing services out of hospital and closer to home for the public benefit. Read more.
Research suggests 18 million have hearing loss
According to a new study in the International Journal of Audiology, the widely quoted 12 million figure describing how many people in the UK live with hearing loss is a significant underestimate.
The figure came to an estimated 18 million when adjusted to include people with very mild hearing losses - at least 20dB in the better-hearing ear - who had previously been excluded, as well as those with single-sided deafness.
The NIHR researchers also used population data from the national census 2021-22, because the 12 million figure was derived using 2011 census data. They acknowledge that they can only describe the values as estimates as they use prevalence data from the 1980s.
Professor Michael Akeroyd from the University of Nottingham, part of the NIHR research team, said: "The way we define hearing loss puts us at odds with most other countries. By modernising these numbers, we align with the latest international practice. We hope it will encourage more people to realise how common hearing loss is."
The RNID welcomed the recalculation for reflecting the lived experience of people in the UK "who have different, diverse experiences of hearing loss and deafness".
More success in gene therapy trial
Five children in China who were born with hearing loss in both ears have responded to sound at a conversational level after a pioneering gene therapy treatment.
Participants in the trial, published in Nature Medicine, are children with a mutation in the OTOF gene that codes for a protein called otoferline. The protein sends nerve signals from the inner ear to the brain.
The trial is the first time researchers have administered the treatment to both ears, after the therapy's success on a separate group of children in one ear only. Read more.
- Last chance to respond to the BAA and BSA Paediatric Minimum Discharge Criteria consultation.
- A brain imaging study finds slower cognitive decline in subjects who wore hearing aids. Read more.
- Ambulance volunteer gives first BSL speech at Buckingham Palace, the BBC reports.
- The rise of 'stylish' earplugs. Read more.
Two leading think-tanks said political parties' pledges to restore the nation's health in the lead-up to the general election were short on detail and the NHS would require far more funding if the parties were to meet their promises. Read the full report.
The King's Fund has produced an election summary of the largest parties' commitments on health. It broke them down into sections, including 'Access to primary and community health care' and 'Workforce recruitment and training'.
Audiology assessments get a mention in another King's Fund report on how diagnostic services have fared since the pandemic. In February 2024, the number of audiology assessments being carried out was only 7% higher than in February 2020.
The headline figure is that 1.6 million people are now waiting for all diagnostic services, a 106% increase over the past decade. Diagnostic assessments are a priority to improve NHS performance, as more than 85% of people seeking NHS care require a diagnostic procedure. They can also help in the detecting illness early, an essential part of any prevention agenda.

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