---
title: "Home Eye or Hearing Test: NHS or Private? | HomeSight"
description: Deciding on a home eye test or hearing test? Who the NHS pays for, what a private visit costs (£30), and five questions that settle it.
image: https://homesightonline.co.uk/hubfs/home-eye-hearing-test-decision.jpg
---
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Eye Health
# Home eye test or hearing test: NHS or private, and how to decide
By **Team HomeSight** · 20 min read · 7 September 2026 · Updated 26 September 2026 Checked for clinical accuracy by HomeSight's [GOC](https://optical.org/)-registered optometrists and [HCPC](https://www.hcpc-uk.org/)-registered audiologists. [About HomeSight](https://homesightonline.co.uk/about).
Eye Care · Hearing Care · How to decide
If your mum or dad can no longer get to a high street practice without someone beside them, here is the short answer. An eye test can come to the house, and where the NHS already covers their sight test it will normally pay for the visit as well. A hearing test can come to the house too, but the NHS very rarely sends anyone out to do it, so a home hearing test is nearly always private. With HomeSight the first hearing check is free, a full assessment is £30, and a private home eye test is £30 where the NHS criteria are not met.
That is the whole decision in one paragraph. The rest of this piece is for anyone who wants to understand it before they book, whether that is for a parent or for themselves. We would rather you decided well than quickly.
Four things nobody tends to say out loud
A home test is the full test. The clinician brings the equipment to your chair and takes the same care over it as in a consulting room.
Whether the NHS funds a home eye test is settled by NHS rules, not by us. If you fall outside them, the answer is a plain £30 rather than a sales pitch.
Home hearing tests are almost always private. The NHS does hearing care well, but it does it in clinics.
About one in six first hearing assessments we carry out turn out to be normal for age. When that is the result, we say so and you keep the audiogram.
The short version
✓ Cannot get to the high street without help? Home is the right setting, and for eyes the NHS will usually fund it.
✓ Free NHS sight test eligibility comes first: 60 or over, diabetes, glaucoma, glaucoma in the family if you are 40 or over, certain benefits.
✓ Home hearing tests are private nearly everywhere. The HomeSight screening is free and a full assessment is £30, refunded against hearing aids.
✓ Anything sudden means NHS 111, your GP or A&E today, not a booking.
✓ Booking for a parent needs no power of attorney. The clinician still checks with them on the day.
## Start with one question: can you get to the high street without help?
The NHS uses this question to decide whether it will fund an eye test at home, and it is also the honest test of whether home is the right setting at all. If your dad can still reach a practice on his own, the consulting room is the better place for an eye examination and the NHS will not pay for anyone to travel to him. If he cannot, because of a stroke, arthritis, breathlessness, a memory problem or an anxiety that makes a busy shop unbearable, a home visit is the realistic way for him to be tested. Professionals call it domiciliary care, which only means care delivered where you live. HomeSight has held an NHS domiciliary contract since 2010.
How do you know it is time? For sight, watch for what goes quietly: the newspaper folded away unread, print held at arm's length, a pause at the top of the stairs, a fall that nobody could account for, an eye test that has slipped by years rather than months. For hearing, the signs tend to belong to other people first: the volume creeping up, the wrong question answered, the complaint that everybody mumbles.
It is worth knowing how much of this is fixable. RNIB puts around 39 per cent of sight loss in the UK down to glasses that are wrong or missing altogether, so a good deal of what looks like decline is simply an out-of-date prescription. On the hearing side, the NHS points out that other people usually notice a hearing problem before the person living with it does, and RNID finds that people wait about ten years on average before asking anyone for help. If you have noticed, you are the right person to make the call.
## Home eye test: will the NHS pay, or is it £30?
Two separate tests decide this, and your parent has to pass both. One is about the person. The other is about the journey.
The first is entitlement to a free NHS sight test. In England that covers you if you are 60 or over, if you have diabetes or glaucoma, if you are 40 or over with a parent, brother, sister or child who has glaucoma, if an eye specialist has told you that you are at risk of glaucoma, if you are registered sight impaired, if you receive certain means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit Guarantee Credit, or if you hold an NHS HC2 certificate. And yes: if your mum has glaucoma and you are over 40, your own sight test is free. A glaucoma diagnosis keeps you eligible for life, and type 2 diabetes controlled by diet alone still counts.
The second is about getting out of the front door. The NHS will only fund the visit where someone is, in its own words, “unable to leave home unaccompanied because of physical or mental illness or disability”. Care homes and day centres fall under the same rule. One honest footnote: the reason has to be specific. “Housebound” on its own is not accepted, so expect the coordinator to ask what it is that actually stops your mum going out alone.
Clear both tests and the NHS pays. Clear only the second and HomeSight carries out the identical examination privately for £30. Either way the optometrist looks for cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, and for signs of high blood pressure, dry eye and problems with the cornea. You are entitled to a copy of your prescription, you are never obliged to buy glasses from whoever tested you, and glasses ordered after a home sight test can be cancelled within seven days.
Two things people commonly get wrong about the money. NHS optical vouchers towards glasses are a separate entitlement from the free test, and being over 60 or having diabetes does not on its own give you one. Where you do qualify for a voucher, frames within its range come at no charge. And paying privately for a sight test means the NHS will not fund another until your next one is due, usually two years on, so let a coordinator check the criteria before you reach for a card.
| | NHS-funded home eye test | Private home eye test |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who it is for | Free NHS sight test eligibility, plus illness or disability that stops you going out alone | Anyone outside the NHS rules |
| Cost of the test | Free, no call-out fee | £30, no call-out fee |
| The examination | About an hour at home, retinal photography included | Identical, same GOC-registered optometrist |
| Glasses | Frames within the voucher range free if you also hold an NHS optical voucher; fitted at home | Priced separately, no obligation to buy; fitted at home |
| Earliest visit | Never same day, because the NHS requires 48 hours' notice; usually within a fortnight | Usually within a fortnight |
| Who decides | The NHS criteria, checked with you by phone | You |
| GP referral | Not needed | Not needed |
If your parent is over 60 and no longer gets out alone, the likely answer is a free NHS visit, and the quickest way to confirm it is to [book a home eye test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/book-a-home-visit) and let a coordinator work through the criteria with you on the phone. The full list sits on our page about [who qualifies for a free NHS home eye test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/nhs-home-eye-tests).
Free on the NHS if you qualify. £30 if not. The same test either way.
A HomeSight coordinator calls you back and checks the NHS criteria with you before anything is booked.
[Book a Home Eye Test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/book-a-home-visit) [Call 0800 080 6095](tel:08000806095)
## Home hearing test: why the NHS answer is different
Plenty of people search for a free NHS hearing test at home, on the reasonable assumption that the NHS visits for ears the way it does for eyes. The NHS route for hearing is free and it is good, but it runs through a building. Your GP refers you to NHS audiology, you attend a clinic, and if hearing aids would help they arrive on long-term loan with batteries and repairs included. Hospital audiology departments do not generally run a home service. Where one exists it is limited to people who are housebound, bedbound or terminally ill, it needs a GP referral and it carries a longer wait. That is why most hearing tests done in a living room in England, including ours, are private.
The waiting matters as well. At the end of June 2026, 124,719 people in England were waiting for an NHS audiology assessment, and more than four in ten of them had already waited six weeks or longer.
So the fork is simple. If your dad can get to a clinic and is content to wait, the NHS route is free and worth taking, and his GP is the place to start. If he cannot travel, or the wait is the problem, a home hearing test is the practical alternative, and the first check costs nothing.
Before any hearing test, though, there is earwax. A plug of wax on its own can drag a hearing result down, so it has to be cleared before an audiogram means very much. Not every GP surgery removes wax these days. The NHS suggests olive or almond oil drops for three to five days first and warns against cotton buds. If the oil does not shift it, a HomeSight audiologist will clear it at home for £80. The tools are microsuction, gentle irrigation or fine manual instruments, all of which NICE prefers to old-fashioned syringing, and the whole thing can happen at the same appointment as the hearing test. For a fair number of families, the wax turns out to be the entire problem.
Then the test itself. The screening is free. A full assessment is £30 and takes about 90 minutes: an HCPC-registered audiologist looks inside both ears, runs pure-tone audiometry (tones through headphones, you press a button), speech-in-noise testing and tympanometry (a small probe measures how the eardrum moves), then explains the audiogram before leaving. Should you decide to buy hearing aids from HomeSight afterwards, that £30 comes back off the price. The aids themselves are fitted at a second home visit, with check-ups two weeks and six weeks after that. Packages open at £1,147 a pair including the fitting and the aftercare, and there is a 60-day money-back trial, with a £50 fitting fee retained if the aids are returned.
Now the line that belongs up in the honesty band. Around one assessment in every six turns out to show hearing that is perfectly normal for the person's age. When that happens you are told plainly, you keep the audiogram as a baseline for the future, and nobody tries to sell you a hearing aid.
| | NHS hearing care | Private home hearing test |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Where | A clinic; home visits rare, restricted and GP-referred | Your own home |
| How you get in | GP referral | Phone or online form, no referral |
| Cost of the test | Free | Screening free; full assessment £30, refunded against hearing aids |
| Waiting | 124,719 waiting in England, June 2026; 41.2% for six weeks or more | Usually within a fortnight |
| Earwax | Not every GP surgery removes it | £80 at home, same visit if you want it |
| Hearing aids | Free on long-term loan, batteries and repairs included | From £1,147 a pair, fitted at home, 60-day money-back trial |
| Existing NHS aids | Repaired and re-tubed free by the department that issued them | £45 service visit covers most major brands, wherever they were bought |
| If hearing is normal | Told at the appointment | You are told, and you keep the audiogram |
If the television is the loudest thing in your parent's house and the journey to a clinic is what is stopping them, the sensible first step is to [book a home hearing test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/book-a-home-visit). The screening is free and there is nothing to lose if the answer turns out to be good news. Our walk-through of [what happens at a home hearing test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/news-and-articles/home-hearing-test-what-to-expect) and the page on [earwax removal at home](https://homesightonline.co.uk/earwax-removal-at-home) fill in the detail.
## Eyes and ears: worth arranging together
If you are sorting out one, ask about the other while you are on the phone. Falls are the most common reason people over 65 are admitted to hospital, and the College of Optometrists reports that around three quarters of the visual impairment found in people admitted after a fall could be put right with new glasses or cataract surgery. NICE's 2025 falls guideline expects a falls assessment to look at both vision and hearing. There is a memory angle as well: NICE recommends considering a hearing assessment for anyone with diagnosed or suspected dementia, and the Alzheimer's Society warns that sight and hearing problems are sometimes wrongly put down to dementia itself.
A HomeSight coordinator can set up both from a single call. Eyes are examined by a GOC-registered optometrist and ears by an HCPC-registered audiologist, so these are two appointments rather than one, and the coordinator will tell you how they can be scheduled in your area. Where two people live at the same address, a couple or a parent and their carer, they are booked into one visit.
## Deciding for a parent
Start with the permission you already have. You can make the booking, go through the NHS criteria on your parent's behalf, put your own number down as the contact, sit in on the visit and hear the findings first-hand. Most of the people who ring us are a son, daughter, spouse or carer rather than the person who will be examined, and none of it requires a power of attorney.
What you cannot do is give consent on their behalf while they are able to give it themselves. The Mental Capacity Act starts from the assumption that an adult can make their own decisions, says they must be helped to do so, and treats a choice you think unwise as no evidence at all that they cannot choose. So the clinician speaks to your mum before any examination and checks that she is happy to go ahead, and decisions about glasses or hearing aids stay with her for as long as she has capacity. Where she does not, the clinician works with whoever holds a health and welfare lasting power of attorney, a court-appointed deputy or the care team, in her best interests. Tell the coordinator when you book if an attorney is in place.
If your parent is reluctant, you are in good company. Age UK's research counted 6.6 million people aged 40 to 60 who worry they would not know how to support an older parent. Reluctance is usually about independence rather than the test, and the Alzheimer's Society suggests framing it around something the person actually cares about, the football commentary or hearing the grandchildren on the phone, and offering a trial instead of a commitment. Age UK's advice is much the same: open questions, small steps, and more than one conversation. A home visit is a small step by design. It may finish with nothing more than a written baseline and a date to look again.
If your parent has dementia, both tests are still possible and both can be adapted, with more time allowed, different charts and you sitting alongside. In one large NIHR study of people living with dementia, the key eye tests could be completed for more than 80 per cent of participants, and updating the glasses alone fixed nearly half of the sight problems found. There is more on our page for [families and carers arranging care for someone else](https://homesightonline.co.uk/for-families).
When this is not a routine decision
**Eyes.** Sudden loss of all or part of the vision, new blurring or distortion, sudden flashes or floaters, a dark curtain moving across the view, or sudden eye pain. Get same-day help from A&E, an urgent eyecare optometrist or NHS 111.
**Ears.** Hearing lost suddenly in one or both ears, or hearing that worsens over days or weeks. Contact NHS 111 or your GP urgently, because NICE says a sudden loss that began within the last 30 days should be seen within 24 hours.
HomeSight is a routine service and not an emergency one.
## The HomeSight home-visit check
Five questions, in order. Answer them honestly and the decision usually makes itself.
1. **Can you, or they, get to a high street practice without help?** If yes, the consulting room is the better place for an eye test, and a clinic hearing test on the NHS is free. If no, home is the right setting, and for eyes the NHS will usually fund it.
2. **Does the NHS already cover the sight test itself?** The routes are listed above: age, diabetes, glaucoma, glaucoma in the family, certain benefits. If yes, and the answer to question one was no, expect the NHS to pay. If no, a private home eye test is £30.
3. **Is this about eyes, ears or both?** Eyes are NHS-funded at home wherever the criteria are met. Ears are nearly always private, because the NHS does hearing in clinics, and the first check is free. Both can be arranged in one call.
4. **Is anything sudden?** Sudden sight loss, new flashes and floaters, or hearing lost suddenly in one ear are urgent. That means NHS 111, the GP or A&E today, not a booking next week.
5. **Who is deciding, and are they happy to go ahead?** You can arrange everything for a parent without a power of attorney. The clinician still checks with them on the day, and where they lack capacity involves the attorney, the deputy or the care staff.
## What happens once you decide
You fill in the short form or ring 0800 080 6095. A coordinator calls you back, confirms what is needed and, where NHS funding might apply, goes through the criteria with you in about two minutes. From that call the visit usually happens within a fortnight. An NHS-funded eye test cannot happen inside 48 hours, because the provider has to notify the NHS in advance.
On the day, ask the clinician for their name and identification before you let them in. RNIB recommends it and no genuine clinician will mind. The optometrist or audiologist sets up wherever your parent is comfortable, works at their pace, and explains what they have found in plain English, with everything written down. Glasses are fitted and delivered back at the house, and where something needs following up the optometrist writes to the GP. For the eye visit step by step, read [what happens during a home eye test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/news-and-articles/home-eye-test-what-to-expect). Everything you can arrange, with prices, is set out on the [booking a home visit](https://homesightonline.co.uk/book-a-home-visit) page.
The first hearing check is free. If the hearing is normal, we say so.
An HCPC-registered audiologist visits at home. No referral to chase, no waiting list.
[Book a Home Hearing Test](https://homesightonline.co.uk/book-a-home-visit) [Call 0800 080 6095](tel:08000806095)
## Frequently asked questions
### Can you have an eye test at home on the NHS?
Yes, on two conditions: the NHS already covers your sight test, and an illness or disability, physical or mental, stops you leaving the house on your own. A HomeSight coordinator checks both with you before anything is booked, and the same examination is carried out privately for £30 where the rules are not met.
### Does the NHS do hearing tests at home?
Rarely. NHS hearing tests are free but they happen in clinics, after a GP referral. Where a home service does exist it is restricted to people who are housebound, bedbound or terminally ill and still needs that referral, so most home hearing tests in England are private. Our home screening is free and a full assessment is £30, refunded against hearing aids.
### Who is entitled to a free eye test?
In England: anyone aged 60 or over, anyone with diabetes or glaucoma, people aged 40 or over with a parent, sibling or child who has glaucoma, people registered sight impaired, and people receiving certain means-tested benefits or holding an HC2 certificate. Qualifying for the free test does not by itself pay for a home visit; that is a separate rule. Our Journal has a fuller guide to [NHS eligibility, route by route](https://homesightonline.co.uk/news-and-articles/free-nhs-home-eye-tests-who-qualifies).
### Do I get a free eye test if my mum has glaucoma?
Yes, if you are 40 or over. A parent, brother, sister or child with glaucoma entitles you to a free NHS sight test. Whether it can happen at home depends on the separate home-visit rule, so if you cannot get to a practice on your own, it can be carried out where you live.
### How much does a private home eye test cost?
With HomeSight it is £30, with no call-out fee. It is the same hour-long examination, retinal photography included, that the NHS funds for people who meet its criteria. Bear in mind that after a private sight test the NHS will not fund another until your next one is due, usually two years later.
### Can I arrange a home eye test or hearing test for my parent?
Yes, and most of our bookings are made this way, by a son, daughter, spouse or carer. You do not need a power of attorney. Give your own number as the contact and the coordinator will check NHS eligibility with you. The clinician speaks to your parent before any examination begins.
### Can the eye test and the hearing test be arranged together?
Yes, one call sets up both. They are carried out by different clinicians, a GOC-registered optometrist for eyes and an HCPC-registered audiologist for ears, so ask the coordinator how the two appointments can be scheduled where you live. Two people at the same address are booked into a single visit.
### Do opticians do home visits?
Some do, and for NHS-funded home visits the provider has to hold an NHS contract covering that area. HomeSight visits Greater London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire and the South Midlands, plus selected surrounding areas. No GP referral is needed. Check the [areas we visit](https://homesightonline.co.uk/areas-we-visit) or ring 0800 080 6095 with the postcode and someone will tell you straight away.
**About HomeSight.** An NHS-contracted domiciliary provider since 2010, with GOC-registered optometrists and HCPC-registered audiologists visiting homes and over 300 care homes across Greater London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire and the South Midlands. Call 0800 080 6095, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Published 7 September 2026.
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[See how a home hearing test works →](https://homesightonline.co.uk/hearing-care)
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"text" : "Yes, on two conditions: the NHS already covers your sight test, and an illness or disability, physical or mental, stops you leaving the house on your own. A HomeSight coordinator checks both with you before anything is booked, and the same examination is carried out privately for £30 where the rules are not met."
},
"name" : "Can you have an eye test at home on the NHS?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "Rarely. NHS hearing tests are free but they happen in clinics, after a GP referral. Where a home service does exist it is restricted to people who are housebound, bedbound or terminally ill and still needs that referral, so most home hearing tests in England are private. Our home screening is free and a full assessment is £30, refunded against hearing aids."
},
"name" : "Does the NHS do hearing tests at home?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "In England: anyone aged 60 or over, anyone with diabetes or glaucoma, people aged 40 or over with a parent, sibling or child who has glaucoma, people registered sight impaired, and people receiving certain means-tested benefits or holding an HC2 certificate. Qualifying for the free test does not by itself pay for a home visit; that is a separate rule. Our Journal has a fuller guide to NHS eligibility, route by route."
},
"name" : "Who is entitled to a free eye test?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "Yes, if you are 40 or over. A parent, brother, sister or child with glaucoma entitles you to a free NHS sight test. Whether it can happen at home depends on the separate home-visit rule, so if you cannot get to a practice on your own, it can be carried out where you live."
},
"name" : "Do I get a free eye test if my mum has glaucoma?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "With HomeSight it is £30, with no call-out fee. It is the same hour-long examination, retinal photography included, that the NHS funds for people who meet its criteria. Bear in mind that after a private sight test the NHS will not fund another until your next one is due, usually two years later."
},
"name" : "How much does a private home eye test cost?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "Yes, and most of our bookings are made this way, by a son, daughter, spouse or carer. You do not need a power of attorney. Give your own number as the contact and the coordinator will check NHS eligibility with you. The clinician speaks to your parent before any examination begins."
},
"name" : "Can I arrange a home eye test or hearing test for my parent?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "Yes, one call sets up both. They are carried out by different clinicians, a GOC-registered optometrist for eyes and an HCPC-registered audiologist for ears, so ask the coordinator how the two appointments can be scheduled where you live. Two people at the same address are booked into a single visit."
},
"name" : "Can the eye test and the hearing test be arranged together?"
}, {
"@type" : "Question",
"acceptedAnswer" : {
"@type" : "Answer",
"text" : "Some do, and for NHS-funded home visits the provider has to hold an NHS contract covering that area. HomeSight visits Greater London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire and the South Midlands, plus selected surrounding areas. No GP referral is needed. Check the areas we visit or ring 0800 080 6095 with the postcode and someone will tell you straight away."
},
"name" : "Do opticians do home visits?"
} ]
}
```
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"medicalSpecialty" : [ "Optometric", "Otolaryngologic" ],
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```
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