On 05/07/2019 15:47, Andrew wrote:
On 04/07/2019 17:02, Richard wrote:
On 04/07/2019 16:47, Martin Brown wrote:
On 04/07/2019 14:23, Richard wrote:
On 04/07/2019 13:20, wrote:
On Thursday, July 4, 2019 at 8:59:34 AM UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:

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

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You are a tad out of date.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 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.