North Essex: hearing aid queues are shrinking (From Gazette)

North Essex: hearing aid queues are shrinking

10:00am Saturday 24th January 2009 in

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WAITING times for hearing aids have been slashed by more than three-quarters in the past year in north Essex.

The average waiting time is now 18 weeks from referral from GP to having a hearing aid fitted – in January 2008 it was 84 weeks.

Currently almost 94 per cent of patients visiting the audiology department at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust are having their hearing aid fitted within 18 weeks, and bosses are confident they will reach the 95 per cent national target by the end of March.

Acting audiology services manager Lesley Chapman said: “This reduction has been achieved thanks to additional funding from NHS North East Essex, which pays for the service, and the hard work of staff.

“We’ve been holding evening and Saturday clinics to help us increase the capacity needed to bring about this huge reduction in waiting times.”

Patients needing a hearing aid have two appointments – one for an assessment of their hearing and a second for the fitting of a hearing aid.

Since 2002 the audiology department staff have fitted a total of 16,590 digital hearing aids, which are replacing the old-style analogue hearing aids.

In 2007 the Department of Health announced it was committed to tackling waiting times.