UK NHS hearing instrument climb back to pre-Covid levels
Bright overall UK Q4 hearing instrument sales figures just released show that National Health Service figures have pulled back to their pre-pandemic volume.
These encouraging numbers published by the British Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association (BIHIMA) show a strong fourth quarter of 2022 for NHS sales. The NHS market size rose 283k (22.5%) on 2021.
Meanwhile, as the manufacturers’ association welcomed the glad tidings, the UK hearing instrument market rose overall 22k (5.4%) on 2021 (up 90k (26%) on 2019), and the Irish market was up 13k (15.6%) from 2021 (up 35k (57%) on 2019).
“It’s undoubtedly been a challenging few years within the hearing instrument market – we’ve seen big drops that have taken a while to rebuild. The impact on those with hearing loss cannot be underestimated – but we are incredibly glad that the tides are starting to turn and that more people are getting access to hearing instruments, and faster,” said BIHIMA Chair, Paul Surridge.
The slow climb of rechargeables
BIHIMA records that UK rechargeable products are continuing to take a slow but steady rise in the UK and NHS. For the return on investment, Q4 2022 showed a particularly promising leap; a positive outcome following a slight drop in Q3.
“On balance, Q4 has shown a slight slowing down in some areas but – as a whole – this has been a great year for the market. While we are well on the way back to pre-COVID volumes, it’s important to remember that we still have a lot to recover from the lost volume in 2020/2021,” said Surridge.
Check out and download the full report here.
Source: BIHIMA