Almost 14,000 children await hearing assessment — and deaf adults bear huge cost burden
Ruth McSkane and James Reardon face €10K in hearing aid costs every five to seven years. James says: 'Working adults who are deaf are being penalised for doing everything society asks of them.' Picture: Brian Bastick/Chime
Almost 14,000 children are waiting to be assessed for hearing loss, with some waiting up to two years.
National charity for deaf and hearing impaired people, Chime, said the "staggering" figures show the urgency of the long-delayed reform plan on hearing loss services to be published.
Long waiting times face parents from Kerry to Waterford, and across the country, new HSE data shows.
The Department of Health set up a working group to examine hearing loss care in August 2024, but its report has not yet been published.
Chime said 13,868 children are still without assessment.
HSE data, up to December, shares the numbers waiting by weeks but stops at ‘52 weeks and over’.
Under HSE South West, 52 children aged under four were waiting longer than a year, and 33 children aged five to 17 waited that long.
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In HSE Mid West, 91 children under four waited that long and 166 are older children or teens.
For HSE Dublin and South East, 212 younger children were waiting over a year, as well as 566 older children or teenagers.
Director of advocacy and communications Danielle McLaughlin said: "We don’t know from the data how long over 12 months people are waiting, but we know anecdotally from clients or people coming into Chime that it’s 18 months up to two years.
“Developmentally, this is going to have a massive impact on their young children.”
The delays vary from region to region, she added.
“There are long waiting lists in certain parts of Dublin, and there are pockets in other areas. And that can come down to staffing in different regions or a larger population," she said.
While she praised a separate system for assessing newborn babies, she has only seen delays increase for children.
There were also 4,448 adults waiting over a year for assessment among 12,849 adults overall.
Most of those waiting the longest — 3,115 people — are aged over 65.
This includes 105 people in HSE South West, 736 in HSE Mid West, and 175 in the Dublin and South East HSE region.
They are “at risk of anxiety, depression, dementia, social isolation and hospitalisation as a result”, Chime warned.
Chief executive Mark Byrne called on the Department of Health to publish the working group plan.
This was expected, he said, to recommend using “public-private audiology service provision to address these waiting lists”.
It should also include, he said, “full, non-means-tested coverage of hearing aids so families with hearing loss are not left struggling".
In one case, a couple with three young children face a €10,000 bill for hearing aids every five to seven years.
James Reardon, a healthcare assistant, and Ruth McSkane, a special needs assistant, described this as “a huge burden” for their finances.
They both need hearing aids, especially at work. Mr Reardon said: “We are not eligible for a medical card because we are just above the income threshold.” He added:
They have used a treatment benefit scheme to reduce the cost of a pair of hearing aids by €1,000 each from a total of €12,000.
“We worked hard to move off disability allowance, secure employment, and buy our own home to raise a family,” he said.
“To find ourselves paying out €10,000 simply to manage the cost of our disability and remain in work is deeply disheartening.”
In response, the HSE said that, last year, 57,301 people were treated by the audiology services.
“The HSE continues to recruit audiologists,” a spokeswoman said, but she described this as “challenging” locally and in the UK.
It supports the MSc in Audiology at University College Cork.
Last year, the Department of Health gave extra funding for children over four waiting the longest for care.
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