War veterans failed by NHS

As the country prepares for Remembrance Day, Deafness Research UK is highlighting the failure of the NHS to help war veterans whose lives have been devastated due to tinnitus.

A study by Deafness Research UK has shown that millions of patients suffering from tinnitus are being badly let down by the NHS. The research shows a disturbing lack of knowledge of the treatments that are available for this common and distressing condition.

Over four million people in the UK are affected by the noises in the head or ear known as tinnitus. Long exposure to loud noise such as artillery fire is known to cause tinnitus and many war veterans are sufferers.

The study shows that over three quarters (76%) of people who sought help from the NHS for their tinnitus had not received any of the generally accepted treatments.

Almost a third had not even been referred to a consultant by their GP. Those GPs who were unwilling to refer their patients to a specialist also tended to be unsympathetic about their symptoms. Although guidelines issued to GPs emphasise that making negative remarks about tinnitus can actually worsen patients' symptoms, the research found that over half of these people were told, "There is no cure, you’ll have to live with it".

Deafness Research UK's Chief Executive, Vivienne Michael, said today:

"War veterans who can trace their deafness or hearing loss to active service are able to seek compensation. But veterans with tinnitus caused by gunfire or artillery noise often have nowhere to turn for help, no route to compensation, and suffer in silence.

"Veterans made a huge contribution to the life of this country and there needs to be much better support and help available for those suffering every day with tinnitus – a devastating and underestimated condition for millions of people in Britain.

"More than 300,000 people are so badly affected by tinnitus they cannot lead a normal life and yet, even though more treatments are now widely available, clearly many health professionals still consider tinnitus an untreatable condition and show little understanding of its impact on mental health."

Recognised treatments for tinnitus are sound generators, which produce a competing sound to help mask the tinnitus and psychological therapies based on retraining the brain to ignore the tinnitus noises.

However, the Deafness Research UK study showed that, even among those who managed to obtain a referral to a specialist, most failed to obtain treatment with only 12% being offered a masker and a mere 2.5% receiving psychological therapies.

Although tinnitus is often experienced in conjunction with a hearing loss and a hearing aid can help to reduce the perceived level of tinnitus as well as improving a person's hearing, only 23% were given a hearing aid by their specialist.