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In this Report
Lords Hansard (1 Dec 2004)
Hearing Aids
Baroness Howe of Idlicote asked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to extend the public/private partnership between the National
Health Service and private hearing aid dispensers so that more private sector
companies can help audiology departments to reduce waiting times for digital
hearing aids.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): My Lords, the existing contract with two private companies was established following a public tendering process and runs until October 2005, at which point it will be open to review. The current public/private partnership is proving very successful, with more than 12,000 patients already off the NHS waiting list and more than 50,000 set to benefit by April 2006. Both companies have the capacity to see more patients if local NHS trusts choose to commission additional services, although there are currently no plans to extend the partnership.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply and, in passing, congratulate the Government and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People on the tremendous efforts that they have already made to get digital hearing aids to NHS patients. However, is not the Minister a little disturbed by the recent survey by the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, which reports an average delay of 46 weeks between a GP's referral and the actual fitting of a hearing aid? In some parts of the country, the delay is as long as four years.
As we now know from the RNID that the quality of life of 3 million to 4 million people could be considerably enhanced by digital hearing aids-I believe that there have been signs of up to 41 per cent improving in hearing-is there not a strong case for involving many more than the two private companies who employ registered hearing aid dispensers to speed up the process for NHS patients?
Lord Warner: My Lords, I do not think that that is necessary. As I said in my Answer, the companies have the capacity to see more patients if local NHS trusts choose to commission additional services. So there is no lack of capacity in the system to supply. This Government were the first to address the fact that NHS audiology was suffering from outdated technology and long waiting times. We are to some extent the victims of our own success by introducing digital hearing aids, which were never previously available.
Baroness Greengross: My Lords, will the Government monitor waiting times after next year? After all, older people, who form the majority of hearing aid users, do not have time to wait for up to four years. It would be very good if we knew how that monitoring is to be carried out.
Lord Warner: My Lords, we intend, as we do across the NHS, to return that money to local PCTs. It will then be for NHS PCTs, which, after all, are now responsible for about 80 per cent of expenditure on the NHS, to ensure that their services meet the needs of their communities.
Lord Ashley of Stoke: My Lords, I declare an interest as the president of the RNID. Does not my noble friend agree that the scheme compiled by the RNID and his department is a tremendous success? So far, it has given 250,000 deaf and hard of hearing people a digital hearing aid free, whereas a short while ago they were extremely expensive. That is a great accomplishment but, as we have already heard, there are delays all over the country, bottlenecks and long queues of people. In my view, the only way to resolve that problem is for the Government to make the scheme a much higher priority, allocate more resources and more skilled audiologists. Can my noble friend help on that?
Lord Warner: My Lords, I am grateful for my noble friend's remarks. He is quite right: the scheme has been a huge success, which is down to the work that we have accomplished in partnership with the RNID, to which I pay great tribute, and is as a result of the extra £125 million that we have invested in the area since the modernising hearing aid service started in September 2000. We are working with the RNID and others to expand NHS audiology posts, of which we acknowledge that we need more. However, as I said, it is down to PCTs, which are supposed to consider the needs of their local communities, to determine their priorities and to put resources into those which meet the needs of their local communities.
Baroness Neuberger: My Lords, given that the Minister has just said that it is down to local PCTs, can he say how many PCTs have taken advantage of the PPP so far; how many more patients have been treated as a result; and, indeed - although this may be a guess - how many PCTs have indicated their desire to participate in the PPP in future and the extent to which the Government may encourage PCTs to do so?
Lord Warner: My Lords, I can answer the first question: the latest figure that I have is that about 75 NHS trusts have committed themselves to participate in the public/private partnership, which represents almost 50 per cent of the NHS audiology departments in England. I do not have information on how many more have expressed an interest or are moving towards participating in the partnership, but we are putting a lot more money into the area. As my noble friend Lord Ashley said, about 250,000 people have already benefited from the modernising hearing aid service with new digital hearing aids
Lord Elton: My Lords-
Lord St John of Bletso: My Lords, while welcoming the partnership-
Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton: Order.
Lord Elton: My Lords, I believe that it is our turn.
The more people who benefit and the more swiftly they do so, which is welcome, the more unfair it is to those who do not. What does the Minister propose to do about those who, scandalously, have to wait for four years?
Lord Warner: Well, my Lords, under this Government, they have managed to get some digital hearing aids, which is more than was possible under the previous administration. I remind the noble Lord that digital hearing aids were then available only privately for up to £2,500 per aid. By the PPP, we have knocked the price down to as low as £55. I do not think that we need too many lectures from the noble Lord.
Lords Written Answers (1 Dec 2004)
Hearing Aids
Baroness Howe of Idlicote asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the current total average cost to the National Health Service of providing
a digital hearing aid for the whole of the patient journey, including the initial
referral, assessment, fitting and aftercare, in addition to the cost of the
unit.
Lord Warner: The information requested is not held centrally.
Commons Hansard (7 Dec 2004)
Hearing Aids
Mrs. Annette L. Brooke (Mid-Dorset and North Poole) (LD): if he will make a statement on waiting times for digital hearing aids.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr. Stephen Ladyman): The modernising hearing aid services programme was developed with the Royal National Institute for Deaf People to respond to audiology issues, and so far 250,000 people have received digital hearing aids. Awareness is now so widespread that some people have to wait, but I expect primary care trusts to do all that they can to meet the increased demand.
Mrs. Brooke: I welcome the progress that has been made in the provision of digital hearing aids. However, does the Minister share my concerns about the quality of life of one of my constituents, who was recently told in a letter from Bournemouth primary care trust that it was currently seeing patients who went on the waiting list in July 2003? That prompts the question of how long it took to get on the waiting list. What action will he take to ensure an improved service for my constituents? The current situation is highly inequitable, given the differing lengths of waiting lists around the country.
Dr. Ladyman: I share the hon. Lady's concerns. I point out to her, though, that this is a four-year programme to extend the availability of digital hearing aids across the entire country. As different parts of the country joined the scheme at different stages, some areas are experiencing particular problems; Bournemouth is one such area. That is why we provided central funding for a further 1,200 people to receive digital hearing aids in Bournemouth. The local PCT has provided funding for a further 2,000 people on top of that; it has also decided to join the public-private partnership, which means that audiology services can be made available from the private sector. Those three factors should lead to some dramatic improvements in the Bournemouth area.
Chris McCafferty (Calder Valley) (Lab): Will the Minister consider offering guidance to PCTs to prioritise people with other sensory deprivations such as deaf-blindness, which is a not infrequent development of old age?
Dr. Ladyman: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We should be doing everything that we can to ensure that people with multiple sensory deprivations get digital hearing aids as quickly as possible. I am sure that her local PCT will have heard her remarks.
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): Following my questions to the Minister last July, the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists conducted a survey among hospital trusts and found enormous discrepancies in the availability of and waiting times for digital hearing aids, including 130-week waits for fitting at the Chase Farm trust and the Kent and Sussex trust in Tunbridge Wells. What does the Government's promise to roll out digital hearing aids by April 2005 really mean, given that there are such long waiting times now? Around 1.8 million people are still waiting, many of whom are elderly and will find a four-year wait far too long. Why is not the Minister speeding up the use of independent hearing dispensers, who stand ready and willing to help to shift the backlog urgently?
Dr. Ladyman: Of course, there were no waiting lists for digital hearing aids under the previous Government, because they were not available on the NHS under the previous Government: only people who could afford £2,500 to go and buy one in the private sector could have one. This is a four-year programme. By next April, digital hearing aids will be available everywhere in England. As I explained to the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Mrs. Brooke), different parts of the country are at different points in the programme, but I expect digital hearing aids to be made available to everybody. Some 250,000 people now have the benefit of digital hearing aids and are able to hear far better than ever before. We are a victim of our own success, because people are coming out of the woodwork to go on the waiting lists. We will meet their needs, unlike the hon. Gentleman and his Government.
Helen Jones (Warrington, North) (Lab): Will the Minister ensure that trusts conduct holistic assessments of people waiting for digital hearing aids? He will know of the case that I raised with him concerning the lady with hearing problems who also has severe depression that would be alleviated by getting a better hearing aid fitted. Is it not right that trusts need to take such factors into account in order to provide better help for patients and to ensure better use of NHS resources?
Dr. Ladyman: My hon. Friend is right. When people have multi-sensory deprivation or wider health needs that are being exacerbated by their failure to get a digital hearing aid, it is appropriate that we look at their cases individually rather than sticking to rigid procedures, to ensure that they get treated with the proper priority. My hon. Friend should remember that this programme is being managed for us by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People in a unique collaboration between the Government and the voluntary sector. That digital hearing aids are available to anyone at all is due to the fact that this Government decided to invest in them.
Sandra Gidley (Romsey) (LD): Answers to written questions to the Minister suggest that statistics on this programme are not centrally collated, yet the RNID has been collecting statistics on the modernising hearing aid service project. Is this just another example of a waiting list that the Government want to hide? When will the Minister publish the statistics? Will it be after the four years, when the playing field has been levelled?
Dr. Ladyman: We are working in a partnership between the state and the RNID. We do not collect these statistics nationally in a centrally collated list, but the modernising hearing aid service project does collate some local information. That information is available to any Member of the House who takes the trouble to talk to their primary care trust. If waiting times are outside the standards being set by the RNID, it is open to any Member to go and talk to their PCT and ask it to place a higher priority on providing digital hearing aid funding for its local area. I would have thought that the hon. Lady would welcome this unique collaboration, and the fact that 250,000 people now have digital hearing aids. That is 250,000 more than would ever have had them under her policies.
Tom Levitt (High Peak) (Lab): Despite the scepticism of both the Opposition parties, does my hon. Friend agree that the roll-out of the digital hearing aid programme has been a massive success for a partnership between the public and voluntary sectors? Although I am sure that he would not wish to see a voluntary sector equivalent of privatisation, does he agree, based on this evidence, that the voluntary sector has a major role to play in future partnerships, not only for local delivery but for the strategic delivery of enhanced and increased services in the NHS?
Dr. Ladyman: As usual, my hon. Friend provides a voice of sanity in a debate too often distorted by the biases of the Opposition parties. This has indeed been a unique collaboration between the voluntary and public sectors. It is something that we can learn from across the board, and I want to see more of these collaborative projects being rolled out in a range of other areas besides audiology.
Commons Written Answers (8 Dec 2004)
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many patients were waiting for digital hearing aids in the Province (a) on 1 January and (b) at the latest available date.
Angela Smith: This information is not available centrally.
Commons Written Answers (9 Dec 2004)
Newborn Hearing Screening
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the (a) information and (b) support provided to the families of deaf children identified through newborn hearing screening.
Dr. Ladyman: The information provided to the families of deaf children identified by newborn hearing screening was developed in collaboration with the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) and is available in leaflet form, covering assessment, diagnosis, and provision of services, including education and social services. There is also a NDCS helpline. This is supplemented by local services taking advantage of the early support programme as it rolls out across local authorities. It is for local managers to satisfy themselves that the provision of information, services and support to individual families and their children by the National Health Service and local authorities is effective, in line with priorities and is of high quality.
Commons Written Answers (13 Dec 2004)
Digital Hearing Aids
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in Coventry are on waiting lists for digital hearing aids.
Dr. Ladyman: This information is not collected centrally.
We have invested £94 million over two years, which will be used to make
digital hearing aids available across England by April 2005.
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