Children forced to wait five years for hearing aids

CHILDREN with hearing problems are having to wait five years to have a hearing aid fitted — almost 10 times longer than children in Britain, a report reveals.

Children with a profound hearing loss are having to wait two years on average, almost six times longer than those in Britain.

The waiting times are in the HSE’s national audiology review, which admits access to good audiological assessment and intervention is patchy at best and non-existent in some areas.

Despite an annual investment of €11.3 million, the service inadequacies represent poor value for taxpayers’ money, it states.

There are more than 10,000 children and adults waiting between three months and three years for hearing aids.

The review group, chaired by Prof John Bamford of the University of Manchester, received 97 submissions from parents. There are access issues, poor information, inadequate staffing levels, poor infrastructure and waiting times that have reached unacceptable levels, the report points out.

One parent wrote: “The countless questions that I have asked myself on what could I have done differently are endless but the one that keeps recurring is, why did it take so long for this diagnosis to be made.”

The HSE is investing an additional €3.7m this year to begin to implement the report’s 42 recommendations on audiology services.

Prof Bamford said the review found difficulties in leadership and governance arrangements, while structures had worked against a quality service.

There are fewer than 70 audiologists and the report recommends that this be doubled and that a training programme should be developed at a suitable higher education institution.

“There are serious gaps and a lot of that is to do with difficulties in recruiting staff to positions,” said Prof Bamford, who said the report’s recommendations would reduce waiting times to an acceptable level.