3 Year Hearing Aid Wait
A report from the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists have released a report stating that the wait for a hearing aid can be from 3 weeks to 3 years with the average time being around 9 months with a third of hospitals being even longer than this, two hospitals had a waiting time of 5 years.
The BSHAA claim that the South East of England has become the ‘black spot’ in the UK, with patients having to wait up to 18 months for a hearing test, and 6 months for a hearing aid fitting.
The president of the BSHAA - Mark Georgevic expressed his feelings by saying: “Each time the survey has been published I have been saddened by the way it demonstrates the low priority placed on people with hearing loss, often those who have reached retirement and who deserve much better.”
With research showing digital hearing aids offer up to 40% improvement on hearing, it is something that cannot be ignored when it can have such a dramatic impact on people’s lives, and with an estimated 2 million of 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people using hearing aids, that is a lot of lives.