Suffering in Silence 2007

A lot has happened in the four years since the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists first commissioned a survey of the length of time it takes someone with hearing loss to obtain a free hearing aid from an NHS hospital. At that time there was no central collection of such information by the Department of Health, and it was our view that this lack of information was being used to hide from public view the terrible situation that had been allowed to develop in hospital audiology over the years.

That first survey, published in the autumn of 2004 confirmed for all who wished to see, the unacceptable waiting times facing people seeking an NHS solution to their hearing loss. In the intervening years there has been much political debate, and promises of action and this spring the Government published its proposals for England, including new targets, the first of which - for all patients to receive diagnostic tests within 13 weeks by March 2007—has already been missed.

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