How much are very good hearing aids for my lovely 92 year old MIL likely to cost, and how long is the process likely to take?

[loveyouradvice]

We've just celebrated my MIL 92nd birthday - 18 people round the table and lots of chat and laughter. She is still so on the ball - she reads the newspaper every day and is keen to have conversations about the news and culture, as well as her numerous grandchildren. And goes for long walks, striding out magnificently.

Sadly her hearing is much much worse than a year ago. She has had NHS hearing aids for a while, so says she can hear the radio fine when she is at home but can't hear anything when there is a group around a table.

She has enough money to invest in very good hearing aids. It will take a lot to persuade her to do so, but I feel it could really transform the quality of her life and enable her to stay feeling very connected to her grandchildren.

What are top end ones likely to cost? And mid range ones if we can't persuade her to invest more?

And how long is the process of adapting to them likely to take? Somehow I imagine 3 or 4 visits to a good audiologist with trials in-between?? I don't know much about hearing, just poor eyesight which is my side of the family.

A

And if by any chance you know a good audiologist in London or the Chilterns it would be very helpful if you could share their details and your experience of them

Before she goes private, perhaps worth requesting a follow up appointment with the NHS to see if they can address her needs to stay connected / avoid social isolation. NHS website mentions a figures of up to 3.5K per ear / aid privately.

My mum is a similar age. She took herself off to Boots with her friend aged 85. They both bought top of the range hearing aids. My mum paid around £2000. She is very pleased with them and the service offered.
It all happened very quickly and efficiently.
Boots check the aids regularly for her.
The insurance is extortionate but I believe you can get a more competitive rate elsewhere.

Specsavers are really good for hearing aids .

I went to Specsavers for mine.
Cost around £1500 for two. I only need one, so one is a spare. It wasn't much different in cost.

The.staff were excellent because I had a lot of problems with the first one slipping in my ear. I ended up with a custom made aid with an extra piece that holds it in place. But you still would have to look for it to know it's there

It meant around 6 or 7 visits for fitting and testing til we were all happy with the fit and sound.
None of this cost any extra.

Batteries are included for 4 years.
If I feel something isn't right then I can go back with no extra charge.

I went on the recommendation of an 82 year old who was so delighted with her's she was telling everyone she knew.

To add
From initial visit to fitting the first aids took about 10 days

My ear canal is awkward which is why the process was so long for me

My NHS hearing aids are not far off identical to the ones a private provider wanted to charge me thousands for. Make sure her NHS audiologist isn’t fobbing her off with basic ones just because she’s old.

I got mine from Amplifon and paid over £3k for each aid. I upgraded my aids for exactly the same reason as your mother in law. Around a table, I could just about manage if there's one person with me, more than that and conversation just all becomes part of the background "noise". The ones I've now got are linked to my iPhone and I can change channels to one that cuts down on background noise.

It doesn't mean my hearing as good as it was before I started loosing my hearing. There are other things that can be done. Like always try to sit with your back to a wall, that way you cut out some background noise, try not to sit visitors with their backs to a window. It's harder to lip read (and most people with a degree of hearing loss lip read, even if they don't know they are it) them if there is bright light behind them.

Good luck trying to persuade her. Hearing loss can become really socially isolating.

And it's quick. One appointment to test hearing, second one about a week about a week later when they are fitted and adjusted to suit your hearing.

Specsavers have a five star invisible aid [in ear] for just under £2000 for a pair.

120 days trial [paid for] where they "say" they will give money back.

FWIW if you have hearing aids you can get a disabled rail pass for £20 a year covering two people at any time.

My dad paid £3000 for hearing aids privately, but never got along with them He was on the NHS waiting list and when his appointment came through, they fitted him with a pair that suited him perfectly.
So as others say, I would go back to the NHS and ask them to retune her hearing aids. They can adjust them for the circumstances in which she lives.

DF spent a small fortune on many hearing aids from different companies.

But hearing aid tethers, a few £ from Amazon, & add them to home insurance out and about cover. At approx £3000 each set it's an expensive mistake to lose them, as he did, frequently.

Aston hearing were independent & always very good with him.

One of the problems with NHS aids is that most trusts only provide aids from one manufacturer - probably based on cost and chosen from whichever company they can negotiate the best deal - but it's really not a case of one size fits all.

My local trust only provides Phonak aids, which were awful for me; no amount programming improved the sound quality. Consequently I went down the private route and bought Widex aids, which provide the most natural sound for me.

I bought mine from Hearing Aid Org (link below) and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They operate by using qualified audiologists based all over the UK who make home visits. Their pricing is transparent and, unlike certain national retailers, they don't offer various pricing plans which often serve to inflate their prices. I have no connection with this company; merely a happy customer.

https://www.hearingaid.org.uk

My relative spent about 4k, 8 years ago at a similar age. They were tiny little in-ear jobs. They weren’t a great success. I think they'd left it too late really. They found them too fiddly to put in themselves and were constantly getting lost. They complained that they couldn’t hear when more than one person in the room.
I think for them, they'd have been more use if theyd had them earlier before hearing loss became so bad and if they'd been bigger so they could handle them easier.
Fortunately they were a proficient lip reader…

Typo, should have said BUY tethers/clips

Like these

That is really helpful information about the rail pass @Thelittleweasel . Thankyou.

just checking that your mother is aware that most hearing aids have a separate setting to use when in noisy places. Mine do and it makes a real difference when I am in a crowd.

The problem with hearing aids whether NHS or private is that they are all brilliant at amplifying one thing in a quiet room. The difficulty is when there are lots of people and background noise.
I might be wrong but I don't think spending a lot of money would necessarily help.
I second the suggestion of getting a review of the NHS ones.

Thanks for the rail pass tip @Thelittleweasel I did not know!

My mum says hers are the same and wears them infrequently. A friend has NHS HA and wears them all time time and says they're fine.
The audiologist told her she needs to wear them all the time and her brain will get better at it.

One of my ex-inlaws makes a (very good) living fitting hearing aids to people privately. I think he can go from 1st phone call to a successful sale/final fit within 2 weeks. Costs a pretty penny, of course. I don't think a (well hidden comfy very functional) pair need cost > £2k though.

Not based close to Chilterns, sorry.

I have NHS ones and they can be adjusted in the app, they are Blue Tooth ones and you can turn them up and down and also use the noise cancelling setting (good if it's windy) and the speech clarity setting.
But if there are lots of people talking at once it's still difficult to hear one person speak to you. That's hearing aids for you.

My mums nhs ones are from spec savers and are all singing, all dancing…..choice of colour to match your skin tone, small and discreet ( they have an nhs contract) my mum has a profound hearing loss in both ears , so even with top of the range aids, her hearing will never be great….it is what it is🤷‍♀️….she’s fine on a one to one but in a noisy place she struggles and would do even with the most expensive aids

Those saying stick with the NHS - maybe you have nice short waiting lists where you are. My mother (92) has had hearing aids for a few years but has never really got on with them. She saw an audiology technician at the nearest hospital in the summer, referred by the GP - not too long a wait for this short appointment, admittedly. He confirmed that she had been on a waiting list for a full hearing test and review for a year already and it would probably be another six months before she got an appointment! As she said herself, she may well not be with us by then. The technician made a few adjustments which she said helped at the time but has since decided made things worse. If she was in a less fragile state of health I'd be taking her to a private provider but it means travelling and that is a huge issue now (she lives on an island).

I do second the advice that it's best to grapple with this as soon as you notice any deterioration in hearing. My Dad managed much better with his hearing aids than my Mum has. I think partly that was because he was more proficient with adjusting them but also he spent less time in denial that there was something wrong than she did, and once he had accepted he was losing his hearing he wanted to get something done. Mum kept her head in the sand for a lot longer.

My parents get very good service from https://astonhearing.co.uk/ in Amersham. Fantastic parking right outside too, and they have a stairlift if required

What is the cause of her deafness? Depending on the cause, hearing aids won't necessarily help regardless of where you get them. It is not uncommon to struggle with hearing when there is a large group and aids won't always help with that. Do you all modify your behaviour to help her follow what is going on? Does she have her ears maintained? It might be something as simple as needing microsuction.