Dr Roger Wicks, director of policy and campaigns at Action on Hearing Loss, said: “These results demonstrate an alarming lack of oversight and accountability on the part of CCGs, which are entrusted with providing healthcare local populations across England need. Without what seems to be the very fundamentals of evidence-based healthcare commissioning – the most obvious of which is rigorous data collection – 94.6% of CCGs are displaying a grave failure in basic budgetary and service management. Without data on how many people are being treated for hearing loss or on the quality of services, commissioning for audiology in many parts of England is being done through apparent guess work, and we fear that under pressure CCGs may well continue to see hearing aid services as a soft target for cuts.”
The charity actively campaigns against cuts to NHS hearing aid provision, and has successfully persuaded 14 out of 15 CCGs not to go ahead with proposed restrictions. The new report, however, has identified three CCGs that are currently deliberately choosing to restrict access to hearing aids. North Staffordshire CCG, Dorset CCG and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough CCG all require a high threshold of hearing loss before hearing aids are provided, which means that hearing aids are not provided to all those who would benefit from them. This is contrary to NICE guidance which states that provision of hearing aids should be based on need, not threshold alone.
Roger continued: “Such a systemic lack of oversight on hearing aid services sadly seems to demonstrate that CCGs are still not taking hearing loss and its wider health implications seriously. Hearing loss is linked to a significantly increased risk of dementia, isolation and other mental health problems. Hearing aids are a lifeline for people who use them, and are prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people when bought privately. NHS hearing aids enable people with hearing loss to remain engaged with their families and their work life, and it’s vital that they remain available. Until CCGs take steps to collect fundamentally important data on the services they are commissioning, these services remain exposed to risk of cuts and rationing.”
The charity’s report lists a number of recommendations for CCGs, including at minimum collecting accurate data on audiology spend, access rates, number of hearing aid fittings, waiting times and outcome measures. It also calls on NHS England to stipulate that this data should be consistently collected and centrally published.