NHS hearing care for Worcestershire saved

24 November 2016

Plans by Clinical Commissioning Groups in Worcestershire to stop providing hearing care on the NHS have been abandoned.

The Worcestershire CCGs say they reached this decision after further work in recent months and taking into consideration the responses received from patients, community groups and other key stakeholders as part of the first phase of engagement.    The three Clinical Commissioning Groups made the announcement on November 22nd following a survey.  Action on Hearing Loss providing robust clinical evidence highlighting the flaws in the proposed restrictions and demonstrating the lifeline that hearing aids represent to people with hearing loss. The charity’s view was supported by hearing aid providers, the audiology community, local deaf groups and thousands of local people.

The NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS Wyre Forest CCG and NHS South Worcestershire CCG had proposed to restrict access to hearing aids for local people across Worcestershire.

BSHAA Chief Executive David Welbourn says he’s delighted with the decision pointing out that local people should have access to high quality hearing aid services in line with NHS England’s National Commissioning Framework for Audiology Services which was published in July 2016.

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