Audiology: Ashfield
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the provision of NHS audiology services in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to bring down the size of the list and reduce waiting times, including for audiology.
The Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are taking a number of steps to improve the provision of audiology services. These include the building of a new soundproof booth to boost testing capacity and transforming some paediatric ear, nose, and throat (ENT) pathways for direct audiology follow-ups. The trust is also improving ENT triage to ensure that patients with potential hearing loss are seen and assessed as soon as possible.
Waiting times for NHS audiology appointments are captured across a number of different data publications. Monthly diagnostics waiting times and activity data for 15 key diagnostic tests and procedures, including audiology assessments, is published at the following link:
As of the end of December 2025, the latest available data, only three of 501 waits, or 0.6%, for an audiology assessment at the Ashfield constituency’s local NHS trust, the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were waiting more than six weeks. That’s better than the NHS constitutional standard of 1% and the national average of 45.5%. Since the end of June 2024, audiology assessment performance has improved by 25% in the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB. The following table shows audiology assessment performance at the local trust, local ICB, and national level:
Area | Percentage of audiology assessment waits of over six weeks in June 2024 | Percentage of audiology assessment waits of over six weeks in December 2025 (latest available data) |
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 0.4% | 0.6% |
NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB | 63.4% | 38.4% |
England | 44.9% | 45.5% |
Data is also published on community health services waiting lists, which includes waiting times for community audiology services. This is published at the following link:
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