NHS hearing aids

Torry_Quine

I have always had good service from my local audiology department. Here you only have the hospital supplying then. A friend was horrified that I had the same as the ones she'd paid for privately.

UKX69

I live in Wales, so the NHS here is run by the Welsh government. When I started to lose my hearing 26 years ago and had to start wearing aids (although I knew I was having problems 36 years ago), I had a choice of which hospital I could visit to see an audiologist ( I live very close to two). At that time, extra funding for audiology had been provided, so I had the choice of good aids. Over the years I could visit the hospital on a drop in basis to sort out any problems. Fast forward to three years ago and now profoundly deaf, the local NHS has been reorganised and I’ve been transferred to the other but nearer hospital. No longer able to just walk in. You have to phone or email to make an appointment for anything - but you get one very quickly. It’s still a first class service and now I’ve been upgraded to the best aids that they can supply, connect via Bluetooth to my phone and control them from there. Altogether very satisfying.

Albermarle

Luckily I have no need for hearing aids, but I did listen to an interesting radio programme, ( an episode of the interesting Sliced Bread series on R4) where the latest and NHS aids were discussed in some detail. The gist of it was that to get the very latest in technology you need to go private, but the NHS ones were also pretty good.

BBC Radio 4 - Sliced Bread, Sliced Bread - Series 11, Hearing Aids

QrizB

Is anyone here using Apple Airpods in "hearing aid" mode? I don't think I need hearing aids yet but expect to do so eventually, and was wondering if this Guardian review was a fair assessment:

https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter-us/2025/oct/31/airpods-pro-3-hearing-aids

(Apologies for drifting off the topic of NHS hearing aids.)

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82077751#Comment_82077751

That's excellent, I think I missed that one. I believe there's a fairly recent Which review too reaching the same conclusions.

middlewife

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82077751#Comment_82077751

Thanks, my OH has worn private aids for 5 years. He's just shelled out around £4000 for new ones, he's used to just selecting the most expensive ones, but realistically, we are not going to be able to buy that level again once he's on his pension, so I'll get him to listen to the programme. Now he no longer has to go to work meetings and zoom calls where multiple people can be trying to speak, I don't think he needs the premium products. It's a shame you can't try before you buy as I think he would do fine with a mid level aid....

Murphybear

Thanks everyone, this is useful. My OH is 78 in a few weeks and his hearing is declining so he’ll probably need a hearing aid in the near(ish) future

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82078222#Comment_82078222

Bit I think SpecSavers offers free return if not satisfied. Not sure how long that's available for.

millie

I realise this is an old post. I live in Solihull and have had my NHS hearing aids from Scrivens for a number of years. I never have to book an appointment to have the tubes changed, I just go to the shop and the staff do it.

TELLIT01

In my area you have to get a GP referral but appointments are reasonably quick after that, just a few weeks. I don't wear mine much because I have tinnitus as well as hearing loss. I was informed the the audiologist that they would really only be helpful in fairly quiet environments and when in conversation with a few people. Mine has Bluetooth connectivity to my phone, which I had forgotten about when scrolling Facebook on my phone during the adverts (muted) on the telly. All was fine with the text stuff, but when I scrolled onto a video clip it didn't half make me jump😁

Repairs are quick here. My wife had a problem, just dropped the hearing aid along with a description of the problem, into a box at the audiology department and it was returned within a few days.

A friend of ours paid several thousand pounds for a pair because he was assured that they were much more directional than NHS aids. His view is that they are no better at all.