Are there any hearing aids for elderly parents that work well and feel comfortable?

It can be really hard for older people to adjust to wearing aids. The noise, the discomfort, learning how to work them. I know quite a few who have gone through the process and spent considerable amounts of money, only for them to be left in the storage box.

I’ve worn hearing aids since I was 9. I couldn’t function without them, and wear them daily. But even I get fed up with having them in, and it’s getting harder as I get older.

But I guess if you go the NHS route at least your dad won’t be paying for them 🤷‍♀️. please do explain to him that he really shouldn’t judge them by the cheap internet ones, which are rubbish. To work well hearing aids need to be individually adjusted by a trained audiologist / technician. The NHS ones will be perfectly adequate for his needs, though the process might be slow and cumbersome. I’d definitely recommend getting rechargeable ones so he doesn’t have to fiddle with batteries. He probably doesn’t need Bluetooth.

I’ve gone private for years because at one point the NHS was still only offering analogue aids while the new digital aids were only available privately - and once I tried the latter there was no going back. The follow up customer service and access to top of the range aids has kept me going private. But I was NHS for years, and it was fine.

This is similar to my NHS experience.
My hearing aids have silicon inserts which are very comfortable. Ask about that.
Just go to the GP …. That’s the starting point.

NHS do good ones now and your dad would qualify. You would get something even better and possibly more comfortable by going private. Generic ones off the internet likely to be rubbish.

I've got a phonak one through NHS (one sided loss) which Bluetooths to my phone, has different settings for different environments. It's tuned to my particular problems and the mould was made for me.
Audiologist told me when I went in for a tuning check and I wasn't happy with it that I had to wear it everyday, as much as possible for a month to give my brain a chance to get used to the signals. Once I did that I got on much better. Whilst it felt odd to start with and can get hot and itchy I can wear it all day without noticing most days now.
I love the T setting for theatre, music....much improves my experience of live performance.

Yes, whilst the NHS do tend to be able to issue better hearing aids than they used to, the "service" is still very variable. I'd always prefer Specsavers over our local hospital audiology dept as the times I've used the hospital was the usual long waiting lists, lots of short appointments, disinterested staff, etc., whereas Specsavers was a lot more efficient and streamlined - all done in one session with easy to arrange follow ups for tweaks etc. I have to think that the hospital audiology dept is more for people with more serious ear/hearing problems rather than people with mild hearing loss - Specsavers is more geared up for the "average" person and you get the same NHS hearing aids, but a lot easier/quicker and less hassle/stress than dealing with NHS receptionists trying to get appointments then cancellations etc.

My moulds are hypoallergenic skeletons, and very comfortable.

My mum did this. She hates them.

Dad went cheap, and refused the follow up appointment. They weren't a success.

Pursuaded him to go to someone more expensive, who actually listen to the issues and got him the right thing. Like night and day.

My dad has just got new hearing aids that charge up overnight (usb) I think.
These are much better because the batteries don’t seem to last that long.

Phonak is one of the best brands you can get anywhere
The problem with buying generic ones online is that they are not programmed specifically for your hearing loss they are just amplifying whatever sounds come in. All the sounds not just voices

Going to get a proper hearing test means that whatever hearing aid he would get would be programmed specifically to his type of hearing loss

Also programs for the types of things he would like to do everyday

Hearing aids can connect to most modern TVs and you can even answer your phone using them
My hearing aids have a modern computer chip in them that brings voices to the front and noise canceling for sound you don't want to hear like traffic and tires on the pavement

If you haven't been a hearing aid wearer before I wouldn't wear them all day because it's overwhelming at first and it makes you tired and possibly a headache and that is when a lot of people give up because they think they're supposed to immediately wear them all day everyday

I find an easy way to start is to wear it for an hour when you get up in the morning and then increase the time

Hearing people can do a lot to help by not talking to the back of people's heads or trying to speak from another room or trying to speak when the TV is on at the same time.
always face them and look directly at their face and don't put your hands over your mouth
Depending on what model of phone they have you can get a live transcribe app or in my case Android the accessibility you press the little person in the corner and then it picks up the speech and converts it to text it is very handy at the doctor's office or out in publc

My mum just paid around 3k for new hearing aids from SpecSavers. She says they are much more comfortable than her NHS set, and she does hear better with them. But a lot does depend on the degree of hearing loss (and also a willingness to wear the bloody things).