Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I am today setting out our ambitious approach to transform the way audiology services are delivered in Wales, providing more care for people with hearing issues and hearing loss in the community, closer to home.
Hearing problems are the leading cause of years lived with disability for people over 70 – 17% of people in Wales report they have hearing difficulties. Research by the RNID suggests more than half the population aged 55 and over experiences deafness or hearing loss, rising to 80% of people over the age of 70. There is also an increasing body of evidence, which suggests an association between hearing loss and dementia – hearing loss has been identified as the largest modifiable risk factor for dementia.
The provision of good-quality and timely audiology care is important – and increasingly so as demand rises – as close to home as possible.
Our Future Approach for Audiology Services in Wales will transform the way audiology services are provided. It is designed to improve timely access to hearing services in primary and community care, including the provision of hearing aids, releasing capacity in hospital audiology and ENT departments to see the most serious cases.
The approach draws on the expertise of audiologists to deliver more care in local communities – over the last five years, audiologists have been training to gain the higher qualifications they need to diagnose, manage and treat more people in primary care.
The transformation of audiology services is aligned to our Primary Care Model and follows reforms in general medical services, optometry, dentistry and pharmacy.
The Future Approach for Audiology Services describes the new ways of working to reform and develop innovative new audiology service models which will support better patient care with a specific focus on the following key areas:
- Continued professional development to create a skilled workforce to deliver the future approach.
- Implementation of integrated new service models, including direct access to hearing care, battery provision and ongoing hearing aid maintenance, including self-management and prudent reassessment.
- Implementing new audiology pathways nationally, including the dementia pathway and wax management pathway.
- Developing information leaflets and communication plans to raise awareness and support people who are D/deaf or living with hearing impairment or hearing loss to enable them to access services in a timely manner and support them to reach their full education, employment and social potential.
The implementation of this new approach will improve care for people across Wales and will further enhance Wales as a UK leader in audiology provision.