Bluetooth Hearing Aids now available on NHS

Hear-Hear

Found this on the RNID site.

The new IMPACT product family from Siemens Hearing Instruments come in a range of colours to match with lifestyle, fashion or mood and offer increased discretion, better sound quality and improved technology. For the first time Siemens TEK will also be available to the NHS. TEK is an innovative remote control that uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly communicate sound between a hearing instrument and MP3 players, mobile phones, TVs and other audio sources. Many people are already benefiting from the advanced technology on offer. Gary Mortimer, a 40 year-old Senior Project Manager from West Sussex said "The TV has gone down from 23 to 17 on the volume control and I am no longer as tired at work as I don't have to strain to listen to colleagues". "Individuals with hearing impairment may feel closed off from the world. Making a telephone call, watching TV or listening to music can be challenging" said Matt Norgate, NHS Product Manager at Siemens Hearing Instruments. "Now, with the Siemens IMPACT devices readily available on the NHS and compatible with TEK, the wearer can easily connect and stream the sound of a mobile phone of MP3 player directly into their ears to ensure they are not excluded from today’s modern world."

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It seems this is the range that has replaced the NHS REFLEX and NHS PRISMA aids. There is a new Product Brochure for the NHS IMPACT which shows all the post-aural and open-fit models AND it clearly shows the new NHS All-In-The-Ear IMPACT models too. Makes very interesting reading.

www.siemens.co.uk/pool/about_us/businesses/healthcare/impact/impact-brochure.pdf


Whilst NHS Audiology Depts have tended to fit aids from just one of a limited choice of manufacturers, they now have the capability to offer from a much wider range of manufacturers.

Anyone who has aids more than two or three years old should be asking their local NHS for the upgrade. If the aids are less than two or three years old, then I guess it may be at the discretion of the PCT to upgrade or not.

stardust09

Ooh, perhaps now is a good time to have a fatal but untraceable accident with my aids! :silenced: Mind you, last time I went they said I'd 'only' had my aids for two years therefore wasn't due for a review. So unfair, especially when my aids still leave a lot to be desired.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

That gives me so many evil ideas for how to torture The Bloke [researches how to set up surreptitious subliminal messaging from her iPod...]

'I love to do the washing up', 'I always put the seat down after use', 'burping and farting whilst scratching one's b@lls is not acceptable behaviour in public'