OT: Hearing Aids

[Cursitor Doom]

Gentlemen,

An old pal of mine, about 75yrs old, ex-serviceman, lovely, lovely bloke; do anything for anyone needs a new hearing aid. I decided he did because the one he's been wearing for ***years*** is pretty hopeless. It's the type that look like you have a grey slug perched on top of your ear. Not a good look. I've been given to understand the latest digital ones leave this old piece of junk in the dirt by comparison. However, he's been quoted 3k for one - and I can't see how the hell that can possibly be justified. I thought they were free after a certain age on the NHS, anyway. Can some kind soul give me a steer to assist my mate? He does so much for children's charities he really does not deserve to be ripped off in such a callous manner. TIA.

[Richard]

He should go to his GP for a referral to an audiology department of a local hospital. If his hearing is seriously impaired he will be offered a NHS hearing aid, FOC. I have one, very good it is too with FOC batteries.

[Chris Hogg]

I have two NHS digital hearing aids, both free. Had a single one for over twenty years, but increased to two in the last few years. Still a grey slug sitting behind my ear, but free, and who cares what they look like? I certainly don't. As you get older your faculties deteriorate. Your sight deteriorates, so you get glasses and only vain women try to get away without wearing them; your hearing deteriorates, so you get hearing aids, and I'm certainly not worried about it or want to pay a small fortune to some private company for the dubious benefit of them not being seen. I'm going deaf, so I need hearing aids! It happens!

I think your pal needs to contact his local audiology department, probably in the local hospital, or go through his GP. If he's already got an NHS hearing aid, he should be on their books somewhere. They'll give him an appointment for a new test, and issue new digital hearing aids adjusted closely to his frequency response.

BTW, it's not just that his ear-mould has got blocked with wax, is it? I have to clear mine out regularly, at least weekly, to keep it clear.

[dennis]

Digital hearing aids are free on the NHS. Get him referred. The batteries are free too.

I SAID THE BATTERIES ARE FREE TOO.

[Bill Wright]

WHAT?

Bill

[tabbypurr]

The flatteries are brie too.

NT

[Brian Howie]

In message , Cursitor Doom writes

Mine's a pink slug. Free NHS digital. They do a spectrogram, all automatic ( well the patient has to press a button) and set it up with a graphic equaliser program ( it's a DSP chip). The parts that go into it are pretty cheap - mass produced ICs - probably assembled in the Philippines

?28.9616 unit cost for 250

?3K is somewhat excessive.

Say parts ~ ?200 leaves ?2800

20% profit ?2200 for labour

Say a 3hours to test program and fit

?730/hour FFS

Brian

[Martin Brown]

They are and the NHS digital ones can beat the first generation private ones by a country mile. The main thing you are paying for with private ones today is minituraisation and marginally better frequency tweaking.

They come with free batteries for life too.

You can pay a lot more to have one that fits in the ear.

First thing to try is his GP and/or local NHS audiology clinic for a full hearing test and a replacement NHS modern digital hearing aid. They still have the slightly ugly flesh coloured external to the ear microphone/battery and electronics and a custom made ear insert.

My father was firing position on WWII anti-aircraft and profoundly deaf in later life. He had private hearing aids for a while because they were the only thing that would work for him - he could lip read as well.

His hearing continued to deteriorate with time but the NHS hearing aids overtook the capabilities of private ones in the early 2010's as cheap low power digital came of age. You pay dearly if you want an elegant invisible in ear device but if you can live with the exterior device then the NHS audiology digital ones are pretty good today.

One advantage of the clunky NHS unit for elderly people with limited dexterity is that they are easier to handle than the fiddly in ear ones.

[Graeme]

In message , Richard writes

I know I need a hearing aid, but keep putting it off. How many trips to hospital for testing are normally required? I ask because hospital here is a 90 mile round trip, and I hope the whole process involves one hospital trip with everything else handled by GP at local level.

[whisky-dave]

what about RD costs and setting up the process of making them. What of teh costs of training people in digital system processing we run a course here on such things, although obviously not just about hearing aids.

Does sound expensive but if they are over priced then surly somne chinese could reverse engineer them and then they'll be the price of a beer. But they haven't I wonder why.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Because it's those fitting and selling them who apply the large markup. Not the maker.

[whisky-dave]

So why don't you see them on amazon and the like ? But perhaps they are likke dentures or hips in that they have to be installed by a professional.

[Chris Hogg]

Usually two trips IIRC. The first to assess your hearing needs and to take a mould of your ear(s), and the second to fit it and fine-tune the amplifier. Is there not a cottage hospital nearer to you that holds audiology clinics? Worth enquiring.

[Brian Howie]

The chip development costs are amortized into the ?30. It costs in the order of 200K to 500K to develop an IC.

I don't have costs for a raw hearing aid,but a similar amortisation process applies . World wide market must be huge. Not as big as the phone market of course.

The "business model" for hearing aids is quite different;maybe similar to glasses. Custom lenses are quite pricey, but glasses are a lot cheaper than hearing aids.

Brian

[whisky-dave]

That depends on the chip, quantiites and other variables. We used to develop chips here and get htem fabricated at manchester univers ity, it did NOT cost us 200K per student, it was a few hundred at most. The cost of setting up the equipemtn and processes is where the money goes.

The world market isn't that huge, as few will get the chance to buy a heari ng aid.

Yes they are easier to manufacture too, and don't need to include a battery or other electronic ciriutry that needs to fit in a very limited space.

[dennis]

Because you couldn't be arsed to look!

Well the NHS will tailor them to an individual unlike Amazon

However it doesn't cost £3k.

[Sam Clark]

"Professional", lol.

Went for an eye test last week. The "professional" seemed more interesting in selling me a type of glasses that I had explicitly said I didn't want, prescribing glasses for some medical events that I had experienced when he clearly had insufficient evidence for any type of serious diagnosis.

Finally he was secretive about revealing historical prescriptions when I told him my last prescription never worked but the one before that still did work.

He became stroppy when I explained the reason why I wanted to see a previous prescription was because I did not trust him. Obvious really, very rude of him to expect me to trust him.

Then he told me a couldn't use the old prescription to get new glasses, this is not true.

When I hear the word "professional" it conjures up the image of a Traveller knocking on my door and offering to fix some dodgy tiles on my roof.

[whisky-dave]

I did years ago and after buying one it was crap dad binned it in anger.

Even after trying the £400 one from a local hearing aid centre, in the end I got him this which worked.

talled by a professional.

just lke some go to a dentist and others find home dental whitening teeth k its.

I can buy a car for a few hundred quid.

[charles]

Mine are branded. You obviously don't read the right magazines.

Mine are private since when I was diagnosed with my problem, I was told by the consultant that the NHS couldn't help me.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I had a pal who was an optician. Owned quite a large practice. Used to buy frames direct from the makers in Italy. Some smaller opticians were selling the same ones x 50 factory cost. Just the frames - lenses etc of course extra.