Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data her Department holds on the number and proportion of ear wax removal treatments commissioned by integrated care boards that were carried out by private sector providers in (a) Cheshire and Merseyside and (b) England (i) between July 2022 and March 2023 and (ii) since April 2023.

There are very few private providers of (Ear, Nose Throat) ENT that deliver ear wax removal (ear irrigation) as a specifically commissioned service in Cheshire and Merseyside.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board has confirmed that there is one private ENT provider in Wirral and two private ENT providers in Knowsley – both of which deliver a much wider outpatient ENT service that may involve ear irrigation.

However, there is no activity data specifically for ear irrigation (or the removal of earwax generally) as it is carried out as part of an ENT treatment pathway, not a standalone procedure.

This information is not collected at the national level. However, the overall proportion of NHS England’s spend on independent sector providers (ISPs) across services has remained relatively consistent in recent years. In 2013-14, 6.1% of total health spending was spent on purchase of healthcare from independent sector providers (£6.9bn). In 2021-22, this was 5.9% (£10.9bn).