Hearing aid lists grow
By Tony Watts - Editor - 01/10/2004
Mature Times looks at how people with hearing difficulties in some parts of the UK are waiting upwards of 18 months to be fitted with a new hearing aid
New digital heating aids are helping to transform the lives of thousands of people, providing a 40% improvement in hearing over conventional technology. Unfortunately, one of the side effects is greater demand - and a catalogue of ever lengthening NHS waiting lists around the country.
According to James Owen, a registered hearing aid audiologists with private fitting specialists Scrivens, “When doctors in some areas refer their patients to the audiology departments of their local hospitals, they are being told that the process can take up to two years. The big problem is that demand has increased but staffing levels in the NHS haven’t risen to meet this demand.”
An estimated nine million people in the UK suffer from some form of hearing loss. The figure for those with a hearing aid is a small fraction of that, as many people - especially men - are reluctant to be tested, or do not wear the hearing aid they are given. It is now feared that the delays will dissuade many people from getting the help they need with their hearing.
According to a new survey conducted by the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists (BSHAA) the situation around the UK varies dramatically, with some hospitals taking just 11 weeks and others, including hospitals in Wales, taking a minimum of 93 weeks. The BSHAA says one answer to the problem is to make more use of the 800 private hearing aid dispensers in the UK. The RNID has been trying to help resolve the situation, undertaking its own investigation and now guiding through several pilot schemes where private resources are being made available to cut the waiting lists.
“We have established a protocol for how these fittings should be carried out,” says Clarinda Cuppage of the RNID. “That will ensure that we can set and maintain a standard that will meet people’s needs. There’s no question that hearing aid provision has been one of the Cinderella services. There is an opportunity here to fit the millions of people in this country suffering from hearing loss with a far superior product, one which will help them enjoy a far fuller life.
“We have begun 5,500 patients on the journey to get a new digital hearing aid and, by March 2006, we hope to reach the 50,000 mark. However, this is still a small part of the picture. Ideally, this programme would be speeded up and more of the spare capacity in the private sector would be harnessed.”
At present, the alternative to waiting is to go private. But it can cost up to £2,000 to end up with a product not too different from the one available on the NHS. However, faced with spiralling waiting lists, many people with the resources are electing to do just that.
One Tory MP, Charles Hendry who represents Wealdon, has brought up the issue on the floor of the House. “A patient of mine was given an 18 month wait,” he told Mature Times. “But it wasn’t just the wait that was the problem. My patient was made to feel that, by asking how much longer she was expected to wait that she was distracting them from their job - which I felt was appalling.
“That situation has now been resolved, but people around the country are still having to wait far too long. I’m pressing the Government to accelerate the programme to involve the private sector. We also believe that patients should have the right to go elsewhere if waiting lists are shorter, and we are advocating a ‘voucher’ system so that people can go to a private dispenser and pay a reduced amount.”
RNID’s Clarinda Cuppage says that: “The DoH has just invested £125m in modernising services in England and these are proven to improve the quality of service. What we do not want to see is services compromising that quality and reducing those benefits by trying to rush patients through the system to reduce waiting times.
“Historically NHS capacity alone cannot cope with the demand on audiology services, so we need to find ways of improving efficiency and capacity without compromising quality. The involvement of the private sector is one way of doing this.”