 Thomas: waited a year for a hearing test |
Elderly patients are having to wait up to three years for a hearing aid in some parts of the country, according to a survey conducted for the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists. The group says that some patients have been quoted waits of up to six years to have a hearing aid fitted on the NHS. Frustrated by the delays, many are opting to go private, rather than face continued years of isolation.
This morning, Breakfast asks: what's gone wrong with the sytem?
We talked to Dr John Low, chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf people, and Thomas Webb, who had to wait more than a year just to have an NHS hearing test. The long delays in fitting hearing aids are partly caused by improvements in technology, according to the audiologists who fit them. After a long fight, it's now possible to obtain a digital hearing aid on the NHS, rather than having to make do with an old fashioned analogue model. But hospitals are short of trained staff - and waiting times have gone up seven weeks since last year. Across the country, people are now waiting an average of 47 weeks for a hearing aid. But, in some cases, patients have been warned they face a wait of up to six years.
|  | BBC NEWS: VIDEO AND AUDIO The hearing aid lottery
We talked to John Low and Thomas Webb, who wrote to his MP about hearing aid delays
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I had my hearing test last month at Ipswich Hospital and was told that it would be fifteen months before my hearing aid would be fitted. I am 82 years old! 
