Annoyed at NHS (UK) for cancelling my appointments

#1

Hi

I was originally suppose to have an appointment back in july to get my moulds for my hearing aids and get the equipment in brought set up for my hearing aids and they cancelled that and remade the appointment for september 16th now they have cancelled that appointment no explanation as to why I’ve been unable to wear my hearing aids for months due to irritation caused by the domes I’m am very unhappy as i was really looking forward to finally being able to make the most out of using my hearing aids and now i feel stuck

#2

Are you in England? Some Specsaver branches support nhs services, if you could find somewhere that does this they should have shorter wait times. Failing that is it worth a free trial period of private hearing aids in the interim, to help have something to tide you over. You would also be experiencing another option to bear in mind for future decisions.

#3

Unfortunately with specsavers you have to get a doctors referral for nhs treatment and knowing my doctors surgery that would take awhile to get sorted out and the place I’m currently under already did the impressions back at the beginning of march for the moulds and so supposedly they should have them there ready for me to be fitted with it’s just the matter of i had to wait until july for the original appointment and then they cancelled that and told me september and now I’m stuck waiting again and i can’t wear my hearing aids I’m just fed up

#4

I can understand that. A few days can feel like too long to wait, let alone months. It’s your life everyday being affected so it must be so difficult to have the dates keep changing. If you can bear it I would try and get a referral from gp surgery, as there’s nothing to lose. Drop them a letter if you don’t want to use the phone. Nhs services are going to be pushed for a while and are notorious for long waits with audiology issues due to demands. Spec savers may be able to offer a better service for you moving forwards.

#5

Unfortunately with my doctors surgery who are not the greatest when it comes to referrals it would more likely be a few weeks to wait for a referral to specsavers as all referrals have to be approved by the practices top doctor before being done so I’m in a lose lose situation

#6

Hi LRav.

The ear moulds could have been posted to you. Contact them and ask or them to be sent. My appointment for March was cancelled, and I have not heard anything since.

#7

Hi thanks for that I purposefully asked them not to send them to me at my house because the post is far from reliable around my area and i was worried that they would go missing in the post and then i wouldn’t have them for the appointment and also i can’t make use of them even if they did send them to me as they need to change the bit where my domes are attached to the hearing aid as it is my first set of moulds

#8

And they want Obamacare for everybody here, too. :frowning:

#9

Come to America; no wait, plenty of providers, just bring $6000+ USD.

#10

I had a faulty NHS hearing aid, and a appointment was made for me, which was cancelled due to Covid. I was contacted a couple of weeks later, and was asked to mail the aid to audiology. Received a brand new one in post the same week. I’m in Scotland, so I guess it will take some time for out patients departments to get back to normal, wherever you are in the UK.

#11

I had my moulds done in December and only got my hearing aid 3 weeks ago!! Covid or not the wheels of the NHS turn slowly for non emergency stuff

#12

The nhs is slow, bad doctors, mail sucks, yadda… With this covid around things aren’t going to improve anytime soom.

#13

Yes things do move slowly on the NHS. Granted, I haven’t had to go to access NHS audiology services recently, but have found NHS audiologists (and even admin staff when booking emergency appointments) to be helpful when I am clear that I work full-time and enumerate the consequences of not having properly fitted hearing aids have on me.

That said, I am currently 2 months into the Phonak Marvels through private provider and it has been painful, still not properly fitted - I do miss my NHS audiologist!

#14

In non COVID times I haven’t found NHS slow and my local hospital has a drop in (no appointment needed) clinic 3 or 4 days a week and at various other centres for repairs, retuning etc. I had ear troublesome ear moulds replaced with open fit on one occasion. Currently it’s appointment only of course but they are doing more by post including replacing lost aids, batteries tubes etc, even ear moulds in some cases if the manufacturer has a scan of the old ones.

#15

Don’t be too critical : NHS audiology staff can be moved to work in ICUs when COVID hits their area.

#16

I’m not being to critical i understand the situation but it’s the fact that they cancelled my first appointment in july i asked them when the centre would be back open and they said they would speak to the manager and phone me back later they called me back and said we will be back open in September and can offer you september the 16th now they then sent me a letter cancelling that appointment and I’ve heard nothing since and I’m unable to where my hearing aids at all and am growing worried about the state of my hearing as i haven’t fingers crossed had any infections since july but i have a slight feeling like my hearing may have changed

#17

Yay at last i have after nearly a year of waiting I’ve recieved an appointment to get my hearing aid moulds and equipment sorted out

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#18

When is your appointment? Hope it’s not too long away.

#19

Thanks it’s on the 17th of June which is very soon thankfully really hope I’ll be able to request a hearing test as feel like my hearing has changed as having to turning hearing aid volume right up to hear the tv or anything I’m watch clearly and even then i still have to have the tv volume up

#20

Don’t forget to charge up your myLink and Pen so they can link it all. :slight_smile: