Tinnitus Costs the UK Society £2.7 Billion Per Year

An economic evaluation of the cost of tinnitus management in the UK

A study funded by the BTA into the healthcare cost of tinnitus management in the UK has calculated that the average cost of tinnitus treatment per patient per year is £717, equating to an NHS healthcare bill of £750 million per year.

The study – a collaborative effort between the British Tinnitus Association, Optimity Advisors and an advisory group comprising of tinnitus experts with backgrounds in audiology, ENT, research and general practice - calculated that over 1.05 million GP consultations for tinnitus take place each year and that the condition costs society £2.7 billion per year.

The team mapped out the clinical pathways and treatment options used by people who seek help for their tinnitus. To generate an overall average NHS treatment cost and estimate cost-effectiveness, costs and probabilities of a patient receiving a particular treatment - and benefiting from it - were estimated using evidence from expert opinion, research literature, a patient survey, and national statistics.

With over 6 million people living with tinnitus in the United Kingdom, and the prevalence of bothersome tinnitus increasing, there was a pressing need to examine the costs of tinnitus care in the UK and to provide a bench mark for the economic evaluation of new therapies or modified pathways.

Although over 6 million people in the UK have tinnitus, there is no standard treatment pathway for tinnitus patients within the NHS. Possible therapies include education and reassurance, cognitive behavioural therapies, sound enrichment, or amplification of external sound via hearing aids. However, the effectiveness of most therapies is somewhat controversial. As health services come under increasing pressure to use limited resources more effectively, there is an increasing need to demonstrate the value of tinnitus therapies and how this value can be enhanced.

The objective of this project was to map out existing clinical practice, estimate the NHS costs associated with the approaches used, and to obtain initial estimates of cost-effectiveness. Our results show that NHS provisions for tinnitus are cost-effective against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) cost-effectiveness threshold.

The BTA is highlighting this study in the hope and expectation that healthcare purchasers in the UK will heed this work and improve provision of tinnitus services.

“An economic evaluation of the healthcare cost of tinnitus management in the UK” is published in BMC Health Services Research and can be downloaded from here


Original article found from here https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/an-economic-evaluation-of-the-cost-of-tinnitus-management-in-the-uk

 

I have had NHS treatment for my tinnitus for 22 years and have been well looked after. I am still registered as an out-patient. If I need help at any time I can telephone Audiology to make an appointment.

Michael

 

@threefirefour I was unsure if you saw this post. It is interesting because it questions whether TRT and other treatments are actually a good use of financial resources.

Oh and side note, I feel like posting this article now every time someone claims their TRT was free in the UK. No, it’s not free. You are inadvertently paying for it, and so is everyone else.

 

No I don't not recall seeing this post thanks. Thankfully people are questioning the allocation of resources.

If TRT works, then because of natural habituation, it's still a bad allocation because it's targeting such a small group of people.

If it doesn't work then of course it shouldn't be part of the NHS.

It costs a lot of money and you're right. The U.K. just cut it off I heard because it was too expensive and wasn't showing strong enough success. Now it isn't free by either standard. If I were English I would be pissed my taxes went here in the first place

 

Makes you wonder how research would look like if we only took 10% of these "management costs" for research. 270 million pounds a year would give research quite a boost wouldn't it?

It's the same in the US, btw. Billions of $$ every year.

I'm generally not naturally drawn to conspiracy theories, but the lack of strategic approach to dealing with T (investing in research to stop bleeding money eventually) in favor of very tactical approaches that consist in spending money on treatments that are characterized by a poor yield makes one wonder.

 

And freeloaders such as @Michael Leigh praise "FREE TRT BY NHS"... I wonder if Michael has ever paid taxes?!?! TRT isn't free ANYWHERE!

 

Because I was brought up and not dragged up I will choose not to answer such a rude and impertinent question in the way that I would like. For your information, I left school on a Friday at age 16 and started work on a Monday as an Apprentice carpenter and Joiner and have worked continuously, until I was medically retired and I continue paying my taxes. Anymore disrespectful comments from you and you will be Ignored.

Michael

 

NHS treatment is paid for through National Insurance contributions. All treatment under the NHS is 100% free at point of delivery at all hospitals. This includes consultations, TRT, CBT, hearing aids, white noise generators etc where available.

 

I have been under the NHS hospital for many years and had great care for Meniere's and Tinnitus and by audiology.

In my early years I had white noise generators but not counselling, only a tick chart to monitor any progress.

Forward on 12-14 years.
Have hearing aids on the NHS.
December seen again by Meniere's Specialist to check nose also.
I was asked if I wanted CBT as no longer offer TRT but as he knows me well he said I was geared up on Tinnitus and emotional response etc and through my voluntary roles in tinnitus.

I asked why TRT was not done now and it was due to cost but also CBT was better used for every condition etc.

I am fortunate enough to have white noise generators and also duel purpose hearing aids with masker setting free on the NHS.

The care I get from my asthma consultant and team and treatment is outstanding.

Love glynis x

 

Imagine all that money going towards research. We would definitely know more about tinnitus and how we can stop it.

 

You can't deny that the U.K. has one of the best healthcare systems though...

 

Yeah we can. It has A healthcare system and it's a lot better than the American one, but it's not in the same league as the Swiss, French, South Korean, or Danish models.

 

Michael

Do you think your job weakened your ears and helped to cause tinnitus?

 

It may have played a part @Sam Bridge but I believe the main cause was headphones, with out doubt. I used them a lot and on reflection, played them way too loud but didn't know I was causing harm. I was and still am a serious Audiophile, although I no longer use headphones. I used to own a pair of high-end Beyer headphones.

Michael.

 

For World Hearing Day 2017, Ear Science Institute Australia produced a video that looked at the prevalence and cost-to-society of hearing loss on a global level. Hearing loss is estimated to burden society by 750 billion dollars per year. A possible latent epidemic may be underway amongst the younger population due to recreational noise exposure...

World Hearing Day 2017

 

£2.7 billion a year is a lot to pay ENTs to say "nope can't do anything about the ringing"

 

Did have. Same for Australia.

 

What happened to Australia's healthcare? Government doesn't have enough funds to keep the quality up?

 

Like the UK, crashing under the sheer weight of demand. Aging domestic population, massive recent immigration of new users, costs blowing out, too many new services added over the years that aren't sustainable, Private system pricing itself out. many things.

 

Health care in France is not a bed of roses...

 

Well it's not the dumpsterfire that is American healthcare at lease.

 

A very fair and true comment Paul as usual
Well done

Michael

 

USA healthcare is crap..

 

Yeah what in the world?

 

We used to have it real good here in Sweden (20 years ago or so). But the health care system here is seriously messed up nowadays! Unless you are dying you are on your own pretty much. If on the other hand you are dying then you get the best care in the world. But for every other non lethal ailments you have to wait for months to see a doctor and all you get, when you actually see one, is usually a paper for sick leave and some Aspirin.

 

Hi, as an author on the paper I thought I'd chip in.

The £2.7 billion societal cost, is the cost of tinnitus to the UK economy - the cost of tinnitus that is untreated or continues to be a problem after treatment. So this isn't the amount spent on treating tinnitus but the amount tinnitus costs the UK by not being treated, or due to not having more effective ways to treat it then are currently available. So the £2.7 billion is the estimated cost in lost days at work, early retirement, impact on families, friends, the cost of isloation due to tinnitus and the other impacts that reduces the UK's GDP due to tinnitus.

We ESTIMATE the cost of treating tinnitus within the NHS is £750 million. This is the cost of the whole pathway, so number of GP appointments (we estimate 1,050,000 of these per year), number of ENT appointments (the most expensive bit, especially when considering MRI scans) and number of audiology and psychology (some get there) appointments, as well as the cost of hearing aids, pharmacotherapy, etc. I'd argue TRT isn't available currently within the NHS and certainly isn't a cost we factored in based on 'pure' TRT. We did assume some got what we term 'modified' TRT which is a shorter course of treatment, including white noise generators or a hearing aid along with basic counselling.

We produced a very basic video which may explain it far better than I have here;

Economic Evaluation of Tinnitus

There's also a sister paper looking at patient journeys through the NHS here; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5809968/

 

The NHS does fund research into tinnitus, through the National Insitute for Health Research (NIHR). We didn't factor this funding into our £750 million figure for treating tinnitus though. There's also the Medical Research Council (MRC) that is government funded and invests in tinnitus research. It's not quite accurate but the way I think about it is the MRC funds basic science work and the NIHR translational research.

Doesn't take away from your point that if we spent a lot more on research we'd know more about it but unfortunately the decentralised way the NHS is now funded makes this very unlikely.

 

The majority of money goes towards TRT/CBT habituation esque treatments not research atleast in the US

 

I'm splitting hairs a little but a lot of the cost is in the diagnosis phases as opposed to treatment - so the GP, ENT and diagnostic tests tend to be more expensive than anything else.

The reason the BTA undertook the study was to get the big numbers out there, to justify more research funding being spent on tinnitus - both for better ways to manage tinnitus and ultimately a cure. It shows the potential size of the market as well as what costs and 'sucess criteria' new treatments will need to acheive to be considered by the NHS.

All of the data and spreadsheets we developed are published alongside the paper so new treatment providers can plug their numbers in to see if it's better then what's currently available .

 

I believe at this point prevention is better than cure , especially since there is no cure. Money NEEDS to be spent on education before anything right now.