This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The NHS will start denying people with hearing problems access to hearing aids for the first time from Thursday in a controversial move that critics claim will worsen sufferers’ social isolation.

The GP-led NHS clinical commissioning group in North Staffordshire is taking the unprecedented step of ceasing to provide free hearing aids to mainly elderly people in its area with mild hearing loss.

It is also making it harder for those with moderate hearing loss to get access to hearing aids by introducing new eligibility criteria against which patients will be judged.

Campaigners and hearing experts have criticised the new policy as “ill thought-through, baffling and unprecedented”.

The CCG says the new restrictions are necessary to help it save money, and will save it about £200,000 in the first year. But the charity Action on Hearing Loss claims that hearing aids cost the NHS as little as £90 each.

The CCG estimates that its new policy will lead to about 500 people a year no longer getting a hearing aid to help mitigate the decline in their hearing capacity, which sufferers say damages their quality of life.

NHS accused of ‘cruel’ rationing of hearing aids Read more

They will now have to decide whether to pay the much higher prices charged by high street providers, which can charge many thousands of pounds.

“Today sees people with hearing loss bearing the brunt of NHS rationing, with the first ever cuts to free hearing aid services on the NHS. It is a very sad day for the people in North Staffordshire who would benefit from them,” said Paul Breckell, chief executive of Action on Hearing Loss.

“The cuts run contrary to the robust independent evidence which shows the importance of hearing aids, and the views of local people who tell us that hearing aids can be life-changing.”

Four other CCGs in Staffordshire – Stafford and Surrounds CCG, Cannock Chase CCG, South East Staffordshire and Seisdon Peninsula CCG and East Staffordshire CCG – are likely to implement the same approach as North Staffordshire, subject to a consultation exercise. Stoke CCG may do something similar.

Dr Huw Cooper, chair of the British Society of Audiology, also condemned the rationing in North Staffordshire.

“We are deeply concerned at the failure of the CCG to take account of the evidence, and the threat this new policy poses for local patients and the continued provision of hearing aids across the UK,” he said.

Refusing people hearing aids – a parable for Britain’s short-term health policy | Jackie Ashley Read more

“Hearing aids are the main treatment for hearing loss and it is of huge concern that audiologists will not be able to give them to all patients who need them.”

The cuts are also “inconsistent” with NHS England’s national policy of supporting people with hearing loss, which they reaffirmed in a new strategy as recently as March, Cooper added.

Marcus Warnes, the CCG’s chief operating officer, defended its action. “Our decision to introduce an eligibility criteria for hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss was not financially driven but clinically-led and based on a significant amount of research and extensive engagement with local people and stakeholders and a variety of national bodies with specialist expertise.”

In future, he added: “The approval of hearing aid provision will be based on an audiology assessment of moderate hearing loss of 41-55 decibels and a functional impact assessment to determine the impact of hearing loss on an individual’s daily life. A hearing loss of 56 decibels and above is not affected by this policy.

“We have created a policy that seeks to ensure that hearing aids are prescribed appropriately for those individuals who absolutely need hearing aids and who have had an audiology assessment of moderate hearing loss of 41-55 decibels, or more, and a functional impact assessment to determine the impact of hearing loss on an individuals’ daily life.”

Meanwhile, North East Essex has become the second area of England to stop funding fertility treatment for women experiencing problems conceiving. It decided earlier this week to only now pay for IVF in occasional and medically complicated cases, such as for women who have been diagnosed with cancer.

If you have the misfortune to have a fertility problem, then the only way is not Essex Sarah Norcross

Its stance is in defiance of guidelines from the National Institute for health and Care Excellence, which says local NHS bodies should fund up to three cycles of IVF for women up to the age of 40.

Mid Essex CCG has already stopped paying for fertility treatment, and Basildon and Brentwood CCG is due to decide soon if it will follow suit.

“It is shameful that only the well-off in North East Essex and Mid Essex will be able to access fertility treatment. Fertility services should be available for everyone eligible for treatment; not just the rich,” said Sarah Norcross, co-chair of campaign group Fertility Fairness.

“This is a clear example of health inequality in practice. If you have the misfortune to have a fertility problem, then the only way is not Essex.”