Should Hearing Checks Become Part of Routine Healthcare?
Living Out Loud | Dr Len
Most of us accept the value of routine health checks. We have our blood pressure measured. We visit the optician. We monitor the things that may change gradually, often before we become fully aware of them.
So why isn’t hearing checked in the same way?
In this Living Out Loud conversation, Dr Len - a practising GP who has lived with hearing loss for decades - asks a simple but important question: should there be a national hearing screening programme?
His point is not that everyone believes they have a hearing problem. It is that hearing can change slowly and quietly. People adapt. They compensate. They avoid certain environments, rely more heavily on context, and work harder to stay in the conversation. Because those changes happen over time, the additional effort can begin to feel normal.
A routine hearing assessment would create an opportunity to notice change earlier.
This matters because untreated hearing loss affects far more than the ability to detect sound. It can increase listening effort, place additional demands on the brain and influence how confidently we communicate, connect and participate in everyday life.
Early identification does not automatically mean you’re in need of a hearing aid. It means having accurate information, establishing a baseline and understanding the options. Where support is needed, it can begin before hearing challenges have had a significant effect on work, relationships, quality of life or cognitive wellbeing.
Dr Len’s own experience shows the difference thoughtful, person-centred hearing care can make. After earlier attempts with hearing aids had proved frustrating, a more considered process with our clinic changed things: careful testing, attention to real-world listening, understanding his life and work, and ongoing adjustment rather than a one-off fitting.
The result was not perfect hearing. It was less fatigue, greater ease in conversation and the ability to remain present and engaged - including in his work as a medical doctor.
A national screening programme would help make hearing part of the wider preventative-health conversation. While that remains a larger discussion, there is a practical step any individual can take: treat a hearing assessment as a normal part of looking after your health.
You do not have to wait until hearing loss becomes difficult to ignore.
Watch Dr Len and his wife Jenny’s Living Out Loud conversation below.
