Written question WQ97969
- Asked by
- Mark IsherwoodConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 5 days
Question
How does the Cabinet Secretary account for the growth in audiology wait times since the pandemic, and what steps is the Welsh Government taking to expand overall capacity in this specialty?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
In April 2025, a new data reporting framework for audiology waiting times was introduced. It captures additional audiology pathways and data and introduced a new waiting time access target for children’s pathways of six weeks to reflect the nationally recognised professional NHS Quality Standards.
The dataset expanded on previous data captured on adult hearing aid pathways; this meant new data collection, validation and reporting processes had to be set up by the health boards. To date, six of the seven health boards have established these – Hywel Dda University Health Board is still developing its processes. It is not yet possible to publish Wales-level statistics. It is expected that data from April 2025 will be available soon.
Audiology waits prior to April 2025 only included waits for first adult hearing aids, despite services providing a wider range of services which were not being measured. The new pathways are a truer reflection of the service model and measurement of more pathways allows for more effective demand and capacity planning.
Demand has increased due to the increase in reportable pathways and prioritisation of resources. ENT pathway redesign looked at audiology assessment prior to referral in several pathways and this has added demand.
New audiology pathways are reducing the number of referrals into hospital ENT services and enable the monitoring and management of low and medium risk patients in primary care settings, releasing GP capacity.
The Future Approach for Audiology Services, published in December, builds on this by setting out a clear vision for delivering more care closer to people’s homes, reducing unnecessary referrals to hospital and freeing up community nurse and GP capacity.
Through direct access to advanced audiology practitioners in primary care clusters, people can receive timely hearing assessments, wax management, and hearing aid support without needing to attend ENT, community nurse clinics or GP appointments. This means faster treatment, fewer delays, and improved patient experience.
All seven health boards will develop plans to implement the new audiology service models over the next three years.