Quality of NHS hearing aids

It comes down to right domes, fine tuning, and switching programs based on the situation.

Danalogic have the Environmental Optimizer and Noise Tracker settings that can help in different situations. It takes a few seconds to kick in, which is by design.

Hello @Lindy1152, the bottom line… If you want to hear effectively, forget the NHS or their subcontractors, the only routes are Costco, Boots Hearing Care, Specsavers, or perhaps a good private Audioligist or indeed DIY, any of these routes will ultimately give you a better hearing experience, than you are ever likely to get via the NHS… The service is broken, and what type of service you get, is down to a postcode lottery, most NHS Audioligy Departments are nowadays, pretty poor, or pretty basic, although some areas still care, and provide an excellent service to this day, but I am afraid, the many years of austerity took its toll, most of the staff (the good ones) just want out, or retired, they are unfortunately totally disillusioned with the service they provide… This was once an excellent service, and many staff end up in the private sector, I know quite a few whom jumped ship… All this, of course comes down to money, or the lack of it, around £1500 for premier aids fully fitted at Costco, £2.5 to £3.5K at Boots or Specsavers, or the thick end of £5k at a private Audioligist. As far as DIY goes, you buy the fitting equipment (Noahlink Wireless) the fitting software is obtainable on this site, from fellow enthusiastic DIY’ers, Noah you’ll get on eBay, along with second hand aids, it’s a learning curve, but anyone with basic computer skills, can get good results, and there is lots of help in the DIY section of this forum, around about £1k should get you decent set of aids, including Noah… I hope, I have given you some options Lindy, or at least food for thought… As far as the NHS goes, your flogging a dead horse! Cheers Kev

Agreed Stephen, but these are all “high end Aids”, to which I refer, I was only giving an approximate… The independent private Audiologists, don’t have the buying power of the “Major Dispensaries” as you have stated in the past, your wholesale price, is likely on a par, with what the likes of Boots are selling their Aids at, fully fitted… In an ideal world, I would love to have that choice of a major chain or an Independent Audiologist, but being on a fixed income (retired) I have to forgo that, and get the biggest bang for my buck, it all comes down to simple economics, and the “Independents” are being priced out of the market! You have my extreme empathy Stephen… Cheers Kev.

My NHS (Oxford] hearing aid has turned out to be surpringly good. A BTE Phonak Bolero dispensed by the audiology department at the JR hospital. They even gave me a card to pick up extra batteries for free.

The aid is bluetooth connected (important for me) and does almost as well as the Phonak Sphere I bought from Wholesale hearing (same aids as I was offered at Boots, just a lot cheaper and the follow up hearing checks are via the Phonak app with audiologist in Glasgow).

@AlexE
A similar story for me. My local NHS Tust gave me Bolero M70, but my speech recognition was poor and they made very little effort in subsequent visits, to help. Being frustrated with them, I too went to Wholesale Hearing, and a local Audiologist agreed to take me on. I bought Audeo P90s. He took impressions for Slimtips and programmed to a much higher standard.

Sadly, my Audiologist decided to close his account with Phonak. Partly because of this, I’ve since decided to self programme, and have bought numerous pairs of Marvels and also some Naida L90 SP. I generally wear the Lumity, but the Marvels are still very good. The NHS didn’t do the Feedback/Real Ear or an Audiogram Direct. They really didn’t seem interested in fine tuning, saying a lot of things that were clearly wrong. If a pair of M90s came up on Ebay, at the right price, I’d snap them up, and they’d immediately by my reserve pair.

One thing I like about Phonak HAs since 2019, is that they all work the same way regarding connectivity, and programme options, accessories (Roger, TV Connector etc).

The differences between my L90s and the Marvel range are very subtle, but not that far apart.
Peter

Regular Ambio, sadly

I know what you are talking about. I like a lot about the NHS, how it used to be, but now it’s just a broken system. Parts are simply defunct.
I ended up sourcing a used pair of hearing aids and going DIY. Two years without proper hearing is not just time lost, it is ground lost. There is a strong correlation between hearing loss and dementia, for example. If you know what your former NHS aids were, you might be able to buy a used (or new) pair that works with your custom mould.
Not sure whether this would work for you.

Guess I’m lucky with my hospital’s Audiology department, they stock Oticon Optim and Play PX1 hearing aids, that I know of, and have a private service if you want to get the latest technology from Oticon.

Crazy is a understatement! Even better go DIY and never have to put up with a totally unacceptable situation like this!

I have to say we don’t seem have the same situation in Scotland, at least in the area I live. It’s relatively easy to get appointments with my local NHS audiology. Also there is no contracting out to the private sector, everything is still carried out in house. The only negative being the aids offered Danalogic Ambio 77 which I have. Although the previous aids I had were Danalogic iFit 71’s which were excellent.

@Lindy1152 said:

they contacted me to tell me the current waiting time is 12 months.

It’s a 14 week wait at the JR for getting a repaired hearing aid repaired or replaced.

@Zebras said:

It’s a 14 week wait at the JR for getting a repaired hearing aid repaired or replaced.

It’s normally 2 to 3 weeks at the BGH sometimes less. Although the Scottish Borders population is relatively small 117000, or 1827 square miles in size. So that is probably the main reason why.