Unable to get through to hospital department

tea_lover

Sounds like they could do with a decent voicemail message. If you couldn't get through but heard a helpful message telling you what to do for repairs, opening hours, whether appts are needed etc. it wouldn't be so frustrating. Would also presumably stop people calling so many times which would ease their workload and stress levels.

Maybe worth suggesting in your complaint.

Hope you get things sorted soon.

Mr_Toad

zaksmum wrote: »

I've given up on the phone now which I suppose is what they wanted. It must ease their workload if they make it impossible for patients to get through on the phone.

I just didn't want to go all the way there and be told I can't be seen without an appointment which has happened more than once.

I'll go in tomorrow and just hope they will see me but will be making a complaint afterwards.

Why would they need to see you it's the hearing aid that's broken, not you.

If it's anything like our local hospital all you need do is drop the hearing aid off at the audiology reception and they'll send it for repair. You'll be in and out in 10 minutes!

swampduck

Mr_Toad wrote: »

Why would they need to see you it's the hearing aid that's broken, not you.

If it's anything like our local hospital all you need do is drop the hearing aid off at the audiology reception and they'll send it for repair. You'll be in and out in 10 minutes!

Yours is a typical reaction for someone who does not wear a hearing aid!!:mad: Being without a hearing aid can be soul destroying not to mention leaving you extremely vulnerable and lonely!! Without my hearing aids I cannot hear anything and certainly would not be able to carry out my job and your comment about not being needed to be seen is not the case for all people. Many hearing aids are now digital and require the wearer to be wearing their hearing aids while they are connected to a computer while the technician does their job.
As for the OP whenever they get to the clinic they need to make it known that it is unacceptable to be unable to access help when it is needed, particularly in an emergency. Granted their hearing loss may not be as bad as mine as they can obviously hear the telephone message but that does not make it any less important.!!

Swampy

Mr_Toad

swampduck wrote: »

Yours is a typical reaction for someone who does not wear a hearing aid!!:mad: Being without a hearing aid can be soul destroying not to mention leaving you extremely vulnerable and lonely!! Without my hearing aids I cannot hear anything and certainly would not be able to carry out my job and your comment about not being needed to be seen is not the case for all people. Many hearing aids are now digital and require the wearer to be wearing their hearing aids while they are connected to a computer while the technician does their job.
As for the OP whenever they get to the clinic they need to make it known that it is unacceptable to be unable to access help when it is needed, particularly in an emergency. Granted their hearing loss may not be as bad as mine as they can obviously hear the telephone message but that does not make it any less important.!!

Swampy

You make too many assumptions about me and my understanding of the deaf and their needs.

My mother is deaf and I know exactly what it's like, I can even sign :cool:

I've dealt with faulty hearing aids for years. My mothers are digital these days and they have never needed to see her to get them fixed.

On one occasion they needed to see her after the repair to set it up properly and on that occasion I suspect it was because the hearing aid she got back wasn't the same one that went in for repair.

Perhaps where you are they always swap the ear piece over to a different hearing aid and your faulty one is then refurbished and put into stock as a replacement. I don't know if that's true for the OP and the OP didn't say.

I agree that it is unacceptable not to be able to get help when you need it but having seen how busy many hospital departments are and how chronically understaffed they are it is not surprising that calls go unanswered, people can only do so much.

Under staffing is not new it's been that way for a decades and is one of the reasons why, over 30 years ago, I volunteered my electronic skills and time to RNIB talking book service. I used to collect, repair and then return tape machines for them.

zaksmum

swampduck wrote: »

Yours is a typical reaction for someone who does not wear a hearing aid!!:mad: Being without a hearing aid can be soul destroying not to mention leaving you extremely vulnerable and lonely!! Without my hearing aids I cannot hear anything and certainly would not be able to carry out my job and your comment about not being needed to be seen is not the case for all people. Many hearing aids are now digital and require the wearer to be wearing their hearing aids while they are connected to a computer while the technician does their job.
As for the OP whenever they get to the clinic they need to make it known that it is unacceptable to be unable to access help when it is needed, particularly in an emergency. Granted their hearing loss may not be as bad as mine as they can obviously hear the telephone message but that does not make it any less important.!!

Swampy

Couldn't agree more. It's a nightmare being without my hearing aid. I just want to hide away from the world and pray I don't have to talk to anyone who might reasonably expect an answer.

Using my NHS aid is a last resort anyway as my private one's in for repair and is a million times better than the NHS one. But that at least gives me SOME hearing.

I could only hear the answerphone because - being audiology department - the words were loudly and clearly spoken and I had my phone on amplify.

The switchboard was useless. I had to ask the guy to repeat several times as I couldn't believe I was hearing a refusal to connect me! He had a strong foreign accent and a whisper of a voice. I had to ask O/H to take over, and even HE struggled to hear the guy...and he has superb hearing.

So I will have to go there tomorrow. God help anyone who's housebound.

Just not good enough.:(

Hear-Hear

Better_Days wrote: »

It may also be worth contacting your local Clinical Commissioning Group - if you google the name of the county you live in and 'clinical commissioning group' you should be able to find out which CCG is responsible for your area. The CCG is responsible for commissioning services so they need to be made aware that service levels are not being met.

To add to the above, your local CCG is a useful source of information and action. They will also be able to tell you whether they currently allow for NHS Hearing Aids to be supplied (free of charge to the user) from High Street providers like Boots and Specsavers, in your local area.

Almost 50% of the country is already covered by this facility, which means easier, and (hopefully for you) much faster, access to audiology services. If you live in an area that is not yet covered, you won't yet have a choice of NHS hearing aid supplier, but your local CCG will be able to give you the launch date for your area.

PudseyDB

For future use, its worth checking if any of your local doctors surgerys have hearing aid repair drop in sessions. They set them up round here - once a fortnight I think - with older people mainly in mind so they don't need to make the trip to the city hospital.

Noctu

Sorry for hijacking the thread slightly...

Can I ask - I completed a deaf awareness course a few years ago and was told that Deaf people are deaf - i.e. profoundly deaf - and those who wear a hearing aid are hard of hearing (as hearing aids are only useful for those who have a small bit of hearing left)

However I was conducting a focus group yesterday and had a deaf participant who participated using a BSL interpreter. He also wore a hearing aid. It wasn't a cochlear implant, just looked like a fairly standard hearing aid. So I guess I would have 'classed' him as hard of hearing even though he was (and introduced himself as) deaf... and had the 'deaf voice' I was taught about.

Can anyone on this thread 'in the know' explain a little further for me? Apologies if I'm way off the mark, I just want to understand a bit better as I find this so interesting... I can only finger sign but would like to learn BSL if I can fit it in somehow

jackyann

I would definitely call PALS, I have done this and found it excellent. But be aware that some hospitals (they only do it to annoy because they know it teases) have changes the name of that department - so you may have to try "searching" under "complaints" or "patient liaison".
Once they get the sniff of something that might be classified as a "complaint" they jump!

Hear-Hear

Noctu wrote: »

Sorry for hijacking the thread slightly...

Can I ask - I completed a deaf awareness course a few years ago and was told that Deaf people are deaf - i.e. profoundly deaf - and those who wear a hearing aid are hard of hearing (as hearing aids are only useful for those who have a small bit of hearing left)

However I was conducting a focus group yesterday and had a deaf participant who participated using a BSL interpreter. He also wore a hearing aid. It wasn't a cochlear implant, just looked like a fairly standard hearing aid. So I guess I would have 'classed' him as hard of hearing even though he was (and introduced himself as) deaf... and had the 'deaf voice' I was taught about.

Can anyone on this thread 'in the know' explain a little further for me? Apologies if I'm way off the mark, I just want to understand a bit better as I find this so interesting... I can only finger sign but would like to learn BSL if I can fit it in somehow

Hi there,

There is no statutory difference between 'Deaf' and 'deaf'. It's a cultural issue, and depends what the individual considers him/herself to be. Only the indivdual can decide whether s/he is 'deaf' or 'Deaf'. It's not for your course leader or anyone els to allocate a person to being 'deaf' or 'Deaf'.

A commonly accepted distinction, but by no means the only one, is:-

deaf people do not associate with other members of the deaf community, they identify themselves with hearing people, and regard their hearing loss solely in medical terms. They will often be in denial about their condition, but when eventually using hearing aids, will tend to use smaller lower-powered devices.

Deaf people tend to have a strong deaf identity that revolves around deafness, a 'community' if you like. They often associate with other deaf people, and regard their hearing loss solely in cultural as well as medical terms. They will often use high powered hearing aids, and many will use BSL to communicate.

PS. Rather than going off topic, suggest you look at a great thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1223803 called Help For Hearing Impairment, which contains some really useful stuff.