Digital hearing aids are not the answer to all hearing problems and some patients will be better suited to remaining with the existing analogue models which continue to provide a high quality improvement in hearing. However, for those suited to the digital technology, it can mean a real improvement as the hearing aids can be carefully customised to suit many patients’ individual hearing loss.
Because of the increased capabilities of digital hearing aids, patients need around five appointments with professional health staff compared to two for analogue models. In addition, demand for hearing services has grown much higher in recent years across Scotland, partly due to an increasingly elderly population.
As a result, introducing digital aids is a huge exercise, especially as around 80,000 people in Lanarkshire use NHS hearing aids and the fitting of digital models is more complex and lengthy. It is therefore necessary to phase in their introduction over time and not everyone will be able to receive digital aids right away. NHS Lanarkshire has a programme of ongoing investment and modernisation of Audiology Services to meet these challenges.