Hearing aids

The step change was around 2000 when sophisticated digital hearing aids came onto the market for the first time. They have improved a bit since then getting smaller and smarter at picking out wanted signal from noise and sometimes mapping real world frequencies onto the ones you can still hear (no good at all for listening to music).

It is at least partly true. My father was regularly on firing position on WWII antiaircraft guns and went deaf in later life as a result. He at one point had to get a private digital hearing aid to be able to hear at all in complex situations - though he could lip read pretty well provided that you were facing him.

By the time that one had reached end of life the NHS ones had gone digital and were a step up from the one he had bought privately. The main thing that you get by paying for them is mostly a smaller physical size and shorter battery life. The NHS ones pretty much kept pace with his declining hearing with each successive generation after that.

Try the NHS first before you part with any money for a private one.

NHS ones clip over the back of the ear and have a custom moulding to fit the ear. Most of the private ones now fit entirely inside the ear.

My NHS Siemens aid is modern but doesn't do that.

Nor that.

Or that.

No.

I only have one, but I'm betting if I had two they wouldn't do that.

Probably true to an extent for a price.

Considering the cost of mine, I'd say that I really couldn't be more satisfied.

That depends on the size of the ear canal. I have one with a mould and one with a standard insert, that comes in different sizes.

Funny how the best ones seem to be all made in Scandinavia. All have smart phone apps these days but beware if you have any sight loss some are more accessible than others. Test them first and always ask an independent audiologist if you can. They are not exactly cheap and you don't want to get the wrong ones. Battery life is often an issue though. Make sure it uses cheap ones or can recharge. I know these things from people I know, not myself. Brian

I suspect they may have some better microphone directionality towards the way you are facing than the older models.

You have to take marketing claims with a good pinch of salt.

It must surely have a T-loop setting - although they have become a bit redundant now that the processing of speech is so good. You probably have to press a fiddly little button somewhere to use that mode.

The discrete remote in your pocket is the bit that NHS kit is missing. I don't know if any NHS ones support bluetooth yet. My fathers didn't.

They will give you a pair if your weaker ear deteriorates.

And ISTR you get free batteries on the NHS (maybe only for pensioners).

Thanks to all for the replies. Specsavers have a 90 day money back guarantee so that might be the way to assess the situation

so, I understand, do Boots.

If your hearing is impaired, see your GP for a referral. Specsavers will then assess your hearing and if it falls below a certain level they can supply NHS hearing aids, or you can pay for others. I could have had my aid programmed with a few of the perks, but chose not to. The batteries for my aid are free and I'm not an OAP.

An outpost of the NHS audiology department at a nearby health centre did my parents hearing aid tests in a purpose build sound proofed room.

Unless you are very fashion conscious I would suggest you check out what the NHS hearing aids can do for your hearing before buying one.

A fair amount of the fitting expertise is in matching the device to your remaining hearing sensitivity and fine tuning it. If you are paying for that skill privately then the costs can rapidly mount up.

You are a tad out of date. Specsavers (and others) now do NHS hearing services. The unit in Royal South Hants hospital where I got my first hearing aid no longer does the service which I receive. Specsavers will provide, absolutely free, NHS hearing aids to anyone whose hearing is sufficiently compromised.

But you are able to claim a "Disabled Person's Railcard".

Which I won't because I don't see the logic.

Had a 'works' reunion the other day, and as is to be expected several had hearing aids. One such was the old HOD. Who was a superb sound mixer in his day - responsible for Rock Follies and many similar. Not short of a few bob, he ended up with NHS units. One for each ear. And fitted them with windgags from personal mics, to stop the wind noise when cycling, as he had done to this meeting. Looked like he had a couple of small mice behind his ears. ;-) But was very please how they worked - and preferred that over looks as many at over 80 might agree.

But the NHS only provides the first one 'free'. Lose it at your peril. And be very, very wary of being admitted to hospital because modern digital hearing aids are expensive and 'disappear' very easily.

If lost, the replacement will cost all of about 70 quid. FWIW, I did lose mine last year. The replacement cost all of nothing as it was fairly old. The replacement was done at the local Specsavers. Original aid had a moulded earpiece, the replacement a soft one with thin tube. Unfortunately there was too much feedback with this and I tolerated it for quite some time. Specsavers fiddled with levels at various frequencies to try and alleviate the problem. On Monday of this week, I received a new moulded earpiece which was fitted at the same Specsavers. This has a larger bore tube which can cope better with the volume required. The aid was reprogrammed to accommodate the new fitting. All this at no cost, except to the public purse.

As for being admitted to hospital and things getting stolen, I guess anything pocketable of value is fair game.

NHS Wales charges £65, but the pdf document has this line :-

"Patients will always be provided with replacement hearing aid(s), whether or not they agree to pay."

So for some that means 'free', even if they deliberately 'lost' it to get an upgrade.

Your point is?

Some time before I got mine from the local hospital audiology department our lass had gone to Specsavers in response to deteriorating hearing. They performed various tests and suggested she needed to spend around three thousand quid. She came home, made a gp surgery appointment and had her ears tested to a basic level at the surgery. They referred her to hospital audiology for soundproof room testing and she was prescribed a discreet digital aid. The responses were programmed to follow closely the frequency ranges determined by the test. Batteries last about a week and are issued free at the local surgery. Some time later she complained I only heard part of what she had said so I followed the nhs route. After a few weeks bedding in time I wasn't happy with the high frequencies response as they seemed too loud. A return visit and the unit programming changed. All is good now and sounds I hadn't realised I was missing are heard clearly. All this was free via the nhs instead of a small fortune at Specsavers.

My local hospital provided a locker for things like your phone etc, when having day surgery.