03 March 2025

World Hearing Day: Government urged to deliver on manifesto commitment

NHS patients are experiencing long waits to access hearing care despite a government commitment four years ago to improve access to care out of hospital

NCHA Scotland wholeheartedly supports the World Health Organisation's call to "make ear and hearing care a reality for all" on this year's World Hearing Day.

In Scotland, the need for equal access to high-quality ear and hearing care is more pressing than ever.

Hearing loss affects almost one million adults in Scotland and is the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability, but many people face long waits to see an NHS specialist due to staff shortages and lack of available hospital appointments.

Unsupported adult hearing loss has a huge impact on communication with colleagues, friends and family. It also increases the risk of depression, loneliness and social isolation. People with hearing loss are less likely to be employed, typically earn less and are more likely to stop working at a younger age.

A recent Freedom of Information request submitted by the NCHA to Scottish NHS adult audiology services revealed that there has been no obligation to report on national quality standards since 2015. It also highlights a waiting list crisis, with patients waiting longer for hearing aids despite repeated commitments to solve capacity issues in hospitals.

This information comes after the government commissioned an independent review of NHS audiology services in Scotland in 2023 and committed to a programme of change. The NHS review found 'multiple, systemic problems' related to governance, leadership, knowledge and reflection, and low staff morale due to unprecedented workplace pressures and few training opportunities.

The Scottish Government established a stakeholder group to help implement the review's 55 recommendations for improvement, stating that audiology "is now being considered as a clinical priority area within the NHS in Scotland". The government is yet to deliver on its 2021 manifesto pledge to bolster community audiology and free up capacity in the hospital sector, putting services "on a par with our free eye care services". 

However, little has changed since this declaration, reports GovTracker.scot. Unlike NHS primary eye care, which benefits from continued investment, NHS patients who need help with their hearing must see their GP first and then face long, debilitating waits for hospital-based care. Colin Campbell, the chair of NCHA Scotland, called on the government to make good on its manifesto promise: "For too long, patients wishing to access NHS audiology and ear health services across Scotland have faced long waiting times and inequality in access to care.

"This is not the fault of hospital audiologists. The simple fact is that hospitals do not have the capacity to meet needs. The solution is a partnership with primary care audiology, which already has the workforce, infrastructure, capacity and technology to care for NHS patients in a safe and sustainable way.

"The future must be one in which the nation's ear and hearing care needs are on the same footing as its eye and vision care needs. We have seen the government implement a world-class NHS primary eye care service. It will cost less to do the same for audiology, and in doing so the government will deliver massive patient and population health benefits. That is why we are calling on the government to act on hearing loss this World Hearing Day."

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Notes to editors: NCHA Scotland undertook an FOI in 2016 and again at the end of 2024. All 14 health boards responded in 2016, and 13 responded in 2024. Some health boards did not answer all the questions. 

The summary below includes the main representative findings.  

• The number of qualified hospital-based audiologists typically decreased or stayed constant. During this time, the number of people with hearing loss increased from 945,000 to 1 million. The hospital audiology workforce has not kept up with growing population needs.  

• The number of hearing assessments reduced in many cases, and if it did increase this did not reflect changes in population needs. Given a significant growth in hearing needs over this period, the NHS is not meeting the needs of the ageing population. 

• Health Boards are providing NHS care to fewer patients, based on information given by those who answered how many hearing aids they fitted in 2016 and 2024. The data also suggests a large proportion of existing hospital capacity is taken up trying to meet the needs of existing patients, with lack of capacity to see new patients.  

• There has been a significant deterioration in waiting times since 2016. Our national FOI in 2016 found NHS patients were diagnosed and supported with hearing aids in a timely manner, with most health boards seeing patients within the audiology waiting times standard at the time. The national dataset stopped being collected in 2019. When we repeated the FOI between in 2024, the information we received showed the following waits for NHS hearing aids: 32 weeks in Fife, 23 weeks in the Borders, 51 weeks in the North Highlands and 20 weeks in Argyll and Bute, 17 weeks in Lanarkshire, 27 weeks in Lothian, 34 weeks in Tayside, 15 weeks in Western Isles, 64 weeks in Grampian and 20 weeks in Shetland. 

Contact: Hannah Williams, communications manager, [email protected]