Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to help elderly people access affordable ear wax removal services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population. This includes the arrangement of services for ear wax removal.

When ICBs exercise their functions, including commissioning healthcare services such as ear wax removal, they have a duty to reduce inequalities between people with respect to their ability to access health services and to reduce inequalities between patients with respect to their health outcomes.

Manual ear syringing is no longer advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to the risks associated with it, such as trauma to their ear drum or infection, so general practitioners (GPs) will often recommend home treatment remedies to alleviate ear wax build-up.

However, in line with the NICE’s guidance, a person may require ear wax removal treatment if the build-up of earwax is linked with hearing loss. A GP could then consider referring the patient into audiology services, which ICBs are responsible for commissioning.