A charity warned in January that millions of people have lost access to free earwax removal on the NHS (Alamy)
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Labor MP Yasmin Qureshi has said patients with hearing loss are being hit by hidden costs that should be covered by the NHS, as she continues to campaign on the issue ahead of Deaf Awareness Week.
Qureshi had held a number of shadow ministerial positions until last year, when she resigned from the Labor front bench to vote for an SNP motion demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. From the backseat, Qureshi said PoliticsHome she is now mainly focused on ‘lobbying’ Labor on the importance of health issues and investment in the NHS. Qureshi himself has suffered from hearing loss for years and wants to see the audiology services provided by the NHS reformed.
With a number of events planned to mark Deaf Awareness Week 2024 between May 6 and 12, Qureshi said she wanted to highlight the costs faced by people with hearing loss, including many more people having to pay for earwax removal services that used to be broadly covered by the NHS.
Qureshi explained that earwax removal is necessary for many patients before an audiologist can make further assessments of ear health and hearing loss, and said most people end up paying an extra ÂŁ50-60 for this service.
“A lot of people are surprised by that and don’t have $60 to spare to have their ears dewaxed, so of course they don’t use it,” she said.
“So I try to ensure that the system we have is one where the audiologist, if they notice that there is wax in the ear and that needs to be cleaned before further assessments can be carried out, they make the NHS pay for that cleaning. employ.”
Early this year, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) made Freedom of Information requests to all Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England, revealing that less than half of ICBs are using wax removal services in accordance with NICE guidelines. The report warned that almost 10 million people in England could no longer access free earwax removal on the NHS as a result.
While some ICBs provide limited services, the charity said it was a ‘postcode lottery’ as to whether people could access them. In some areas, these services are only available to patients over the age of 55, and at least seven ICBs do not offer wax removal services at all.
According to Qureshi, this lack of accessibility could delay crucial diagnoses for patients: “The most important thing about hearing is that there is quite a bit of evidence that people with hearing problems who do not use hearing aids on time and at an early stage Once they are diagnosed, it can lead to dementia and other long-term effects.”
Qureshi also criticized the lack of follow-up care for patients with hearing loss, after recently experiencing it herself.
“A year ago I had my hearing test and was given a new hearing aid and everything was adjusted, but normally there should be a follow-up appointment about two weeks later to check you’re doing well. help…and I haven’t heard from anyone,” she said.
While Qureshi did not think specific commitments on treatments for people with hearing loss were likely to make it into the Labor Party manifesto, she said she felt she had a particularly “sympathetic ear” from shadow health minister Wes Streeting, although Labor currently being “cautious” about spending on the NHS.
Describing the current Conservative government as “really not concerned” about disabled people, Qureshi said she would continue to call for reform of audiology services that would improve care in a “right, holistic way” if Labor were in government at the next general election come.
The Labor MP wrote in earlier The House magazine that making audiology a primary care service, rather than requiring them to access the service after being referred by a GP, would mean patients would have much easier access to services for mild problems such as earwax and tinnitus.
“That way you would take the footfall out of the hospitals and leave the hospitals with the more challenging and severe cases of hearing loss,” she said. PoliticsHome.
Qureshi expressed her hope that Deaf Awareness Week will help push these issues higher up the political agenda, adding that political representation in parliament is important for deaf and disabled people.
“[MP] candidates have to meet different things, but once they meet all the criteria, I believe we need to have more people who have some kind of disability because hopefully they will understand that problem and be able to address it,” she said. .
As Deaf Awareness Week gets underway, many deaf and hearing loss campaigners will also be calling for greater accessibility to sign language and breakthrough technology such as cochlear implants. Qureshi said that while she was currently focused on improving direct access to hearing care, more work also needed to be done on investing in specialized services for children with hearing loss.
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