A new NHS ear and hearing health pathway is being rolled out in community pharmacies across ten integrated care boards (ICB) in England.
TympaHealth, which provides the technology, training and clinical support behind the service, said it has “an initial national capacity for up to 16,320 community-based appointments annually”.
It added that under the pathway, community pharmacies will provide ear and hearing assessments, as well as hearing screening and ear wax removal.
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And it said the new programme aims to “reduce patient waiting times”, alleviate the backlog of ear, nose and throat (ENT) audiology cases in secondary care and “ensure there is capacity for ENT and audiology specialists to manage more complex patient referrals and procedures”.
According to NHS Wait Helper, 42% of patients were forced to wait “six weeks or more for audiology tests” as of this August, while NHSQueue data shows the ENT elective backlog sits “close to 600,000”.
The programme was initially launched in Frimley last November, with nine pharmacies trained to deliver the service.
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There are currently ten ICBs involved in the pilot: Thames Valley, Surrey and Sussex, Central East, West and North London, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Dorset, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and Coventry and Warwickshire.
TympaHealth told C+D that the Coventry and Warwickshire and Dorset ICBs are still due to be onboarded.
Coventry and Warwickshire hopes to be fully onboarded before Christmas, it said, while Dorset should be set up in February.
Half of patients “fully managed” in pharmacies
Frimley ICB head of pharmacy for the Medicines Optimisation Team Yinka Kuye said the pharmacy-led pathway is “a significant step forward in transforming care delivery”.
She said community pharmacy’s involvement in the delivery of the service “supports the national ambition to shift more care from hospital into communities, while helping to address the capacity and access gap across primary and secondary care”.
“Early results are promising, with regular GP referrals and just over 50% of patients being fully managed within community pharmacy, demonstrating both the value of the pathway and the expanding role of community pharmacy teams in delivering high-quality clinical services,” she added.
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TympaHealth CEO and founder Dr Krishan Ramdoo said the company’s 2025 research found that over a quarter of people (28%) were unaware that ear and hearing health issues can be assessed by a pharmacist, while 18% reported waiting between four and six months to be treated by a healthcare professional.
“By making these services available locally, we can make it easier for people to seek help earlier, rather than waiting until problems escalate and begin to affect their wider health and wellbeing,” he added.
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It comes after Boots launched a new adult earache service in “over 145 stores” in January.
Boots said the scheme offered a “convenient way” to access treatment and advice for ear pain or ear infections.
