18 month wait for a new hearing aid – for 108 year old

30/07/2007

One of the oldest women in the UK has been told by Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust that she will have to wait 18 months for a new hearing aid. Olive Beal, who has six grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren and lives in a care home, points out that: "I could be dead by then”.

Olive has used an old-fashioned analogue hearing aid for the last five years, but recently sought a digital hearing aid as she was finding that background noise was making it hard to hear conversations and even music. Confined to a wheelchair and also losing her sight, Olive has little contact with the outside world, so being able to hear properly is vital for her.

Emma Harrison, Head of Campaigns at the RNID, told the Mature Times: "It’s a scandal that Olive Beal has been told she has to wait 18 months for a hearing aid - but sadly it's not uncommon for people across the UK to wait over two years. During this time, people waiting for a hearing aid are isolated from their family and friends and find it hard to get by at work and in their every day life.

"The RNID is calling for an 18-week target for fitting hearing aids and extra investment to bring waiting times down and keep them down."

Olive's granddaughter, Maria Scott, pointed out that her grandmother had worked from the age of 16 to 60, fully paying all her taxes and National Insurance, and had been healthy all her life. "A 108-year-old deserves to be treated better than this."

From 2000 – 2005, the RNID worked with the NHS to modernise hearing aid services, using the health service’s vast purchasing power to negotiate a hugely reduced price for digital aids with multinational hearing aid companies. The RNID then managed the Modernising Hearing Aid Services programme, introducing digital hearing aids in a phased roll-out across the country.

Despite the scandalous waiting times for hearing aid fitting, the Government argues that it has brought down waiting times for those needing a hearing aid to have their initial assessment to less than six weeks. But the Department of Health’s own figures show that 75% of patients wait for longer, and a quarter have waited more than a year - simply for an initial assessment.

Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust, in their statement to Mature Times, said: "Olive Beal has been prioritised for receipt of a digital hearing aid as soon as possible based on the assessment which took place at Deal Hospital on 25th July.  
 
"The demand for the new digital hearing aids is so large that the service has clear criteria for prioritising.  Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT is assured that this lady has been carefully assessed by the local hearing aid service and a letter was sent to the Audiolgy Department at East Kent Hospitals Trust to request that she be treated as a high priority.
 
"Olive currently does have an analogue aid and in their professional opinion a digital aid would benefit her.  Priority is always given to people whose life will be transformed by receiving a new aid for example people with other sensory problems.  
 
"The PCT is investing an extra £715,000 in this service over the next two years, in order to reduce the length of time people have to wait for a transfer to digital hearing aids."

The Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT has an annual budget of £900m. In their last financial year the PCT say they “achieved” a total underspend of £2 million, which went towards £6.6 million which has been rolled over until this financial year.