Three-hour bus ride just to get hearing aid parts

Eddie Yarrow from Northumberland used to get replacement parts for his NHS hearing aids posted to him

An 81-year-old man has said he is frustrated at having to travel on the bus for three hours to get hearing aid parts that he used to receive in the post.

Eddie Yarrow said a change in the audiology department service means he now has to travel miles from his home in Widdrington in Northumberland to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, or he cannot use his hearing aids.

He said he could not understand why he had to collect batteries and tubes when they were "small enough to fit it an envelope".

The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the postal service had become "increasingly inefficient" and it was sorry the new service had "teething problems" but was trying hard to "scale-up".

Mr Yarrow has used hearing aids for several years and said he had always "enjoyed an excellent service" from the NHS.

However, in September he was told the system had changed, and that he now has to make a hospital appointment if he needs new parts.

He said when he called to book, he was told that there was a 12-weeks wait.

He said: "I don't know why I need to do a 70-mile round trip to collect things which could be posted out."

Mr Yarrow said the replacement tubes and batteries are small enough to fit in an envelope

When Mr Yarrow explained that he would need to catch two buses to get to Newcastle, a journey of at least three and a half hours, he was told about monthly drop-in sessions in Alnwick, Berwick, Corbridge and North Shields.

However, when he went to his nearest clinic in Alnwick, he said it was "chaos."

The clinic was open for two hours but he said "quite a number of us, including myself, came away with nothing."

He said he was told to return the following month, or make a hospital appointment.

"If you're working and you require your hearing aids, I don't know how you're going to do your work," Mr Yarrow said.

Socially Isolating

The Royal Institute for the Deaf said it was concerned to hear about patients having to wait several weeks for replacement hearing aid parts.

Crystal Rolfe, director for strategy, said: "People across England are having problems receiving the aftercare and support that they need.

"It really can have an impact in terms of people becoming socially isolated - it's really important that people have the help with their hearing aids that they need."

Mr Yarrow said he had previously had an "excellent service" from the NHS

The hospital trust said that the postal service was "becoming increasingly inefficient" because of the complexity and the number of different models of hearing aid supplied.

It said patient feedback was that they wanted to be able to talk to someone and "to do that more locally to them".

It added that the drop-ins had been "much more popular than expected" and it was working hard to improve the service.