§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) 5 March 2001,Official Report, column 115W, on digital hearing aids, when the proposed modernising hearing aid services project will commence. [157950]
172W
§ Mr. HuttonThe timing to roll-out the "modernising NHS hearing aid services" project and announcements on funding are being kept under review until the results of the Institute of Hearing Research evaluation of the project can start to be taken into account. The Department anticipates £25 million will be available for National Health Service hearing aid services in 2003–04.
§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that audiology departments are implementing the NICE guidance on hearing aids. [157949]
§ Mr. HuttonAll National Health Service bodies and clinicians are expected to give due weight to guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and to the evidence on which it is based. Initial monitoring of the implementation of NICE's guidance will take place through the established Quarterly Monitoring Review, supplemented through other data sources available to the Department. We will be looking to the Commission for Health Improvement to provide some authoritative information in due course.