Hearing test, hearing aid?

[ThisLife100]

My mother aged 86 has struggled with her hearing for a while.

Her GP surgery weren’t interested in the issue, and just recommended olive oil.

Eventually I arranged (and she paid for) a wax removal and (free) hearing test at home for her. Cost £180.

She did have wax build up, but the audiologist also said she had hearing loss. He wrote a report for her GP.

Its a private company and the audiologist talked about hearing aids in the region of £3-4k.

If my mother goes back to her GP with the report, would she be entitled to a fee hearing aid with the NHS instead? I assume this may mean more medical appointments and time ?

Does anyone know or had any experience of this? I know nothing about this issue!

Thank you 🙌

https://www.specsavers.co.uk/hearing/hearing-test

according to this, specsavers serve half of England for nhs hearing services. It might just do so where you are, and be quicker than attempting to go via the GP.
it’s worth researching and asking.

Definitely go back to gp. Ime elderly patients get priority for nhs audiology referrals. 3k seems a lot tbh.

Thanks a lot. I’ll definitely go back to GP then,
for a referral first. It sounds promising if there is priority - though of course there could still be a wait.

I got a referral from the GP without even needing an appointment. I just called the surgery and explained that I knew that Specsavers do NHS audiology in my area, and asked how I could access it. They said they'd do a referral, and I got the letter and the code in a couple of days.

I picked up my NHS aids a few weeks ago.

I was able to book an appointment within two weeks of the referral, and I could have taken the aids home that day. I just wanted to sleep on it for a while and consider whether I wanted NHS ones or private fancy ones. The NHS ones are fine though, so I'm glad I went with them. I can always upgrade later.

Lucky you. I'm still on a 30 weeks waiting list but they do expedite the elderly. It varies by area.

When I first asked about a breaking test, the surgery told me it would take that long. But that turned out to be for a hospital audiologist who visits the practice once a week. When I phoned them back after I heard about specsavers, it was a whole different ball game.

Breaking? Hearing!

Thanks a lot everyone.

I appreciate I could have googled some of this, but this time I’m just honestly all googled-out and researched-out with sorting this kind of stuff out for my mother.

It’s been nice to just ask :-). T.Y.

NHS hearing aids are fine, so give them a try first. They come with free batteries too.

My dad has NHS hearing aids via specsavers. They work well.