Five year wait for NHS hearing aids

18 September 2006

The time people in England have to wait to get a hearing aid on the NHS has increased in more than a third of all hospitals, according to a new report published today.

And in the first ever nationwide investigation into how long it will take someone with an old-fashioned analogue hearing aid to get it upgraded to the latest digital instrument, waiting times of five years have been reported. Worse, at least one hospital says its lists are so long it has stopped taking referrals. At another there is no waiting list at all because the department has run out of money.

It’s the third year The British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, has commissioned a report into hospital waiting times around Britain, and the Society says it decided to include waiting times for upgrading because it is now six years since the Government began a modernisation programme to introduce digital technology. Digital hearing aids have been available in all English hospitals for over 18 months.

Across the UK, patients will have to wait on average between 60 and 64 weeks to have their analogue hearing aid replaced, compared with an average UK wait for a first hearing aid of 45 weeks. However in England, analogue hearing aid users have to wait between 68 and 72 weeks for a digital instrument. In Wales, patients can expect to wait 45 weeks, and in Northern Ireland, between 36 and 44 weeks. Scotland came out best in the survey – hearing aid users there will wait between 27 and 29 weeks.

These analogue to digital waiting times clearly demonstrate the so called post code lottery of health care in the UK and the averages hide some extreme waits at hospitals around the country.

The North is the black spot where patients wait between 100 and 121 weeks. At the Beverley Westwood Hospital the waiting time is 260 weeks, that’s five years! But four other hospitals have five year waiting lists: the Victoria Hospital, in Blackpool, the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, in Stoke on Trent, Hull Royal Infirmary and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. In the East Midlands the average wait is 85 weeks and in West Midlands it is 81 weeks.

In all six English hospitals have waiting times of over 200 weeks, 12 have lists of over 150 weeks and at no less than 36 hospitals, patients wanting a digital hearing aid to replace of their analogue one, will wait over 100 weeks.

The report, published in the Society’s professional journal, BSHAA News, shows that on average across the UK people seeking their first hearing aid wait between 42 and 45 weeks for a hearing test, and subsequent fitting of a hearing instrument compared with 43 to 47 weeks a year ago.

But in England the average waiting time has risen for the third successive year to between 45 and 48 weeks. There have been improvements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. where the waiting times are now below the UK average.

At four hospitals (Colchester District General, Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Derriford Hospital, in Plymouth and Staffordshire General, in Stafford) the waiting time is 117 weeks………..over two years.

Source: British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists
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