Hearing News

New Hearing Aids from Phonak

Versata

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Imagine yourself moving from a quiet conversation in the car to the noise of the city, then into a restaurant for a nice dinner with your loved ones. No problem. With versatile, automatic performance, Versáta provides the optimum combination of comfort and clarity, no matter where your life in motion takes you. Versáta is a full product family with models, styles and colors to suit virtually every hearing need and personal style.

Versáta employs Phonak’s exclusive SoundFlow technology which automatically creates a unique
listening program for each environment. Versáta integrates a host of advanced features dedicated to providing clear, comfortable, natural sound everywhere:

• WhistleBlock Technology, the world’s best feedback eliminator for freedom from annoying
  whistling
• Noise reduction and directional speech enhancement to zoom in on speech and block
  out background noise
• Wind noise reduction for comfort outdoors

Certena

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Whistling is the most common annoyance of hearing instruments. Thanks to WhistleBlock
Technology this is not a problem with Certéna. So, wear your favorite hat. Hug a loved one. Sit where you want. WhistleBlock Technology means you can be confident Certéna will function, without the annoyance of whistling, no matter what the activity.

“Before, when my granddaughter hugged me, she would say ‘Grandpa, your ears are whistling’.
Not anymore, with Certéna I can do whatever I want and never have any annoying whistling.”
Sean Hurley, Ireland

Certéna also employs proven Phonak innovations in automatic speech enhancement and noise
reduction to guarantee clear speech and comfortable sound in all situations.

Certéna was engineered at Phonak’s state-of-the art facility in the heart of Switzerland. So naturally, Certéna benefits from the world-renowned Swiss craftsmanship.

Exelia

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Exelia by Phonak, is without doubt, the most sophisticated hearing instrument system ever introduced. Hearing and understanding can sometimes be challenging, especially in difficult listening situations. Exelia supports your individual hearing needs and offers you unprecedented hearing performance, full control when in different environments and easy access to modern communication and entertainment systems such as mobile phones.

Active Hearing believe the Exelia is one of the best products on the market and can once again offer you a full life experience, bringing back the sounds you miss such as a loved ones voice or bird song.

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NHS Waiting Lists - The Postcode Lottery

The British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists (BSHAA) has just completed a survey of NHS hearing aid waiting lists across the UK. The report highlights the fact that there are still lengthy waiting lists when it comes to the provision of hearing care within the NHS.  The average maximum wait across the UK as a whole is still 36 weeks, twice the target that has been set by the Government for England. The average also hides significant variations across the whole of the UK, which clearly demonstrates the so-called Post Code lottery of healthcare.

The situation is worse in England where, though the average wait is lower, it remains above the UK average. Here patients can expect to wait between 36 and 38 weeks. 36% of English hospitals had waiting times greater than the UK average but this is a marked improvement on last year when more than half exceeded the average.

Waiting times in Scotland increased this year, where the average is between 31 and 33 weeks (compared with 29 to 31 weeks last year).  There has been no change in the situation in Wales where patients still wait between 28 and 32 weeks. The number of hospitals which exceed the UK average waiting time has gone up, 36% have waiting lists longer than 36 weeks compared with just 25% a year ago.

The South East of England continues to be the worst place for patients looking for their first NHS hearing aid, and is the only region in England where waiting times have increased year on year. Now, people with hearing loss will wait between 84 and 92 weeks for their assessment and the fitting of a hearing aid, an increase of between 11 and 18 weeks on the year.

The South East also has the dubious distinction of having the hospital with the longest waiting list in the United Kingdom. Patients unlucky enough to be referred to the Princess Royal University Hospital, in Orpington, will have their assessment in just 8 weeks – but will then have to wait between two and three years to get a hearing aid fitted. The South East also has more hospitals which have reported an increase in waiting times during the last 12 months. Across the whole of the UK, 47% of hospitals had waiting lists over 6 months; in England just under half (48%); in Scotland, 65%, Wales, 55% and Northern Ireland 42%. Doncaster Royal Infirmary was the only hospital in the whole of the UK which reported no waiting lists at all for first time patients, although North Manchester Hospital, at Crumpsall, said their patients only had to wait three weeks.

BSHAA concludes "It cannot be right or fair in the 21st Century that people with hearing loss, many of them elderly, still have to wait between around eight or nine months for their first hearing aid, and in some areas over three years. Nor can it be right or fair that despite the Government promise in 2000, that everyone who needed a hearing aid in the future would get a digital one, many people are still waiting, and may have to wait up to five years".

(Source: BSHAA's report 'Suffering In Silence 2007'.
The full report is available at www.bshaa.com)

Article posted: 21/01/2008