Two-year wait for hearing aid

Hard of hearing residents across the Black Country are still facing two-year waits for new digital aids, it was revealed today.

Health chiefs said they were working hard to cut delays but angry patients are claiming the NHS is failing them.

Half of Dudley patients are still facing two or three year delays and so are Wolverhampton residents.

Lesley Shore, director of specialist services for Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust, said: "For existing patients with an analogue hearing aid, the waiting time to upgrade to a digital aid is currently 24 months.

"However we anticipate that this will reduce substantially to 16 months by the end of this summer."She added the current waiting time for new referrals for a digital hearing aid was around three months.

Laura Broster, spokeswoman for Dudley Primary Care Trust, admitted there was a problem switching people over from the analogue to the digital system but said the trust was working hard to reduce waiting lists.

"We invested £500,000 last November in an attempt to reduce waiting times and get people fitted with the new digital hearing aid but it is a massive undertaking," she said. "About 50 per cent of our existing customers have had to wait between two and three years to be fitted with the new aids."

She said there were 3,200 people on the waiting list with 2,850 of those waiting to switch from analogue to digital.

In Walsall, new patients referred to the Audiology Department at the Manor Hospital could be seen for their initial assessment within six weeks and receive their hearing instruments within a further 12 weeks.

Twelve months ago the wait would have been around 18 months to be assessed and fitted.

Patients have criticised the delays. Dulai Resham, of Manor Street, Tettenhall, asked his doctor for a digital aid in October 2005 and is still waiting for an appointment.

Mr Resham said he was told it would be September or October before he would get his hands on the desperately-needed equipment.

Hearing Aid services said they had received the doctor's letter but would not issue an appointment until they were ready to see Mr Resham, who is using an old analogue aid.

The 55-year-old said: "It's really upsetting. I was working and paying my taxes on the premise that the NHS would be there when you need it and it disappears into thin air."