Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) children and (b) adults in England were fitted with bone anchored hearing aids in each of the last five years.

The data is not available in the format requested. Since data for local area teams is not available prior to 2010-11 we have only provided a four year time series for this data.

We have provided a count of finished consultant episodes (FCE) with a primary or secondary operative procedure of 'cochlear implant' for children (0-17) and adults (18+) by NHS England local area team from 2010-11 to 2013-14. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year. This information has been attached.

Data concerning the number of NHS patients who have had a hearing test in an audiology clinic, an ear, nose and throat clinic of an audiology department at a local hospital in each of the last five years is not collected. The vast majority of this activity is provided as outpatient care where the recording of procedure and intervention data is not mandated.

In the following table we have provided information concerning the number of FCEs with a main or secondary procedure of the fitting of a bone anchored hearing aid for children aged 0-17 and adults aged 18 and over, 2009-10 to 2013-144.

Source:

Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) Health and Social Care Information Centre

Notes:

1. ‘–‘ in the table represents no available data.

2. An FCE is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end.

3. HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data. Conversely, apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information. HES figures includes activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity ending between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.