Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to move towards patient self-referral as the default pathway for (a) community audiology and (b) other routine community NHS services.

There are currently differing approaches to patient self-referral to audiology services across the country. The NHS England ‘2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance’ was published in December 2022. This set out a key action for systems to expand direct access and self-referral for a range of services where general practitioner involvement is not clinically necessary. By September 2023, systems are asked to put in place self-referral routes to audiology-including hearing aid provision as well as falls response services, musculo-skeletal physiotherapy services, weight management services, community podiatry, and wheelchair and community equipment services. Systems are also expected to put in place direct referral pathways from community optometrists to ophthalmology services for all urgent and elective eye consultations by September 2023.