30 May 2025

NCHA member update – 30 May

This month:

• AGM celebrates successful year and new online magazine
• Healthcare regulator launches data hub
• Government calls for evidence on children's hearing services
• NICE updates guidance on falls prevention in older people
• Audiology waiting lists show steady growth
• Annual hearing aid sales in Europe exceed 22 million
• Ear to the ground
• Health policy

AGM celebrates successful year and new online magazine

The NCHA, part of the FODO Group, held its AGM on 7 May, reflecting on a year of growing membership and successful sector leadership amid continued political and economic challenges. Read more.
 
The Group celebrated the launch of Clarity, our new online magazine, which provides news, features and opinion, offering the latest insights on ear, hearing and eye care. Members can filter the news according to their preferences. If you are interested in joining our user experience panel to help shape what's on offer, please email [email protected].

Healthcare regulator launches data hub

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has launched a new data hub that provides statistical information about hearing aid dispensers and the 14 other professions it regulates. The number of people working in community and preventative care has risen, with significantly more hearing aid dispensers joining the HCPC register since 2020.
 
The interactive tool provides information about registration numbers for each profession over time. A filter can break down the figures by characteristic, including age, gender or registration route. Read more.

Government calls for evidence on children's hearing services

The Department of Health and Social Care is calling for evidence from hearing care professionals and families after Wes Streeting commissioned an independent review of children's hearing services. The deadline is 2 June. The health secretary commissioned the review last month, criticising a lack of action to address failures in diagnoses and follow-ups.
 
In December 2021, the British Academy of Audiology published a report about service issues in children's hearing services in NHS Lothian, after questions were raised about whether hearing tests were being conducted effectively and adequately followed up. This led to an independent review of Scottish NHS trusts in 2023 and subsequent assessment of NHS audiology services in paediatric departments across England. Read the full story.
 
Last month, the Scottish health minister Jenni Minto, in a letter to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, said that "audiology is now being considered a clinical priority area within the NHS in Scotland". She also gave a detailed update on work undertaken in response to the independent review.  
 
NCHA Scotland has published a response to the Scottish Government's implementation of the audiology services review. It is calling for statutory regulation for all audiologists and a primary care audiology service centred around patients' needs.

NICE updates guidance on falls prevention in older people

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published 'Falls: assessment and prevention in older people and in people 50 and over at higher risk'. This updates and replaces its guidance from 2013.
 
The committee that examined the evidence agreed it was vital to provide personalised information, based on individual risk factors.
 
The guidance highlights the importance of considering risk factors such as dizziness and hearing impairments, where clinically necessary, and advises arranging a Dix-Hallpike manoeuvre if the dizziness presents as rotational vertigo. Read more.
 
Hearing loss is highly prevalent among older adults and has been associated with an increased likelihood of falling, findings from a secondary analysis of the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) trial have shown.  

Audiology waiting lists show steady growth

The proportion of patients waiting six or more weeks from the time of their referral to their first NHS hearing assessment in England was 38.2% in March 2025, slightly up on the figure for March 2024, NHS England figures show. This makes it the diagnostic test with the second highest proportion of patients waiting for this time.

The number of patients on the waiting list for a hearing test at the end of the month remained stable, at 109,669. Audiology activity over the year grew by 10.7%. The figures include independent sector providers of NHS care.
 
The total number of referral to treatment (RTT) pathways where a patient was waiting for consultant-led elective care was 7.4 million at the end of March 2025. The waiting list, which is lower than a year ago, is slightly higher than in February 2025, after six months of steady decreases. Some 51% of patients waiting for ear, nose and throat (ENT) services were seen within 18 weeks, and there were 113,210 new referrals.

Annual hearing aid sales in Europe exceed 22 million

The European Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association (EHIMA) has announced that its companies collectively sold 22.69 million hearing aids in 2024, which marks a 4% increase compared to 2023.
 
EHIMA said the upward trend in demand for hearing instruments "underscores the ongoing efforts to address hearing loss through early intervention and accessible audiological care". Read more.

Ear to the ground

• The HCPC has launched a consultation on its sanctions policy, to provide more detailed guidance for panel members when deciding on the appropriate action in fitness to practice (FTP) cases. The consultation closes on 1 September.
• The British Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturer's Association (BIHIMA) gives a snapshot of the results from its annual survey of audiologists.
• A new auditory brainstem implant for people who cannot receive a cochlear implant shows promise in animal study. Read more.
• A study looks at a new working model for hearing healthcare professionals, based on evidence of how best to support people who need hearing aids to seek help.
• The Advancing Healthcare Awards Cymru, celebrating innovation and expertise, are now open to healthcare scientists in Wales. Closing date is 18 July.
• Deaf celebrities share video messages to their younger selves in the National Deaf Children's Society campaign.

Health policy

NHS high street pharmacies reduce pressure on GPs and ENT
More than 5 million patients have received help directly from high street pharmacies for seven common conditions, including acute otitis media, NHS England reported. About 2.4 million people received help without booking an appointment at their local pharmacy. Pharmacies delivered the most consultations for acute sore throats (835,679) compared to 292,944 acute otitis media pathways.

The Company Chemist's Assocation has reported that 14% of people with otitis media (earache) were referred to another NHS service, compared to an average of 8% across the seven conditions covered by pharmacy first.

The Pharmacy First scheme enables patients to get certain prescription medications directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment. 

David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, said: "Pharmacy is a critical element as the NHS shifts care from hospitals to the community, treatment to prevention, and analogue to digital. 

"The 78,000 registered pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in England are skilled professionals who operate in the heart of the NHS and their communities, and are highly trusted by the public." 
 
Government introduces penalties and rewards for NHS leaders 
Failing NHS hospital trust leaders could have their pay docked under a new 'carrot and stick' approach to reforming the NHS. While failing trust executives may have to forgo their pay rises, or even lose their jobs, those who make improvements for patients could get bonuses of up to 10%.  Read more.  

The announcement came as NHS England published its latest  very senior managers pay framework, which applies to all 215 trusts and 42 integrated care boards (ICBs).    

Healthcare Leader and?HSJ reported on the ICB mergers that are likely to happen, as local commissioning systems work towards cutting operating costs by 50%. The consolidation is likely to result in 13 'clusters' but will also leave up to 14 ICBs as separate organisations, it said. The HSJ added that it saw an internal memo suggesting ICBs could be reduced from 42 to between 25 and 28. 
 
Other policy news

The King's Fund reports on NHS financial pressures and tough choices ahead with ICB deficits forecast to be as high as £6.6 billion for 2025/26. It concludes by stating how, despite real-term increases in spending for decades, "the NHS is now in one of the most pressurised financial positions in its history". 

Healthwatch looks at the patient perspective, summarising feedback about what people want to see in the 10-Year Plan for the NHS. It urges the government to ensure that patients' needs, preference and choices underpin the three promised shifts for the health service: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.