I hope that all goes well with your referral.
It does seem to be different depending on geographical area, and I am not just meaning the Access to Work scheme. For example, the NHS where I am have been generally very good, I have had no problem with them. It is just recently that their hearing aids do not supply the level of support that I require.
There are various drop in clinics that I can attend in order to get to see people. My one bug bear is that you cannot get hold of anyone on a phone for quick queries, and have to attend the clinics, but once you get hold of someone face to face, generally all is very good. You just have to turn up at 8 a.m. to get the first ticket for 9 a.m. otherwise you join a queue behind everyone else and it’s a lottery as to how long each appointment will take.
On top of that I managed to get registered as hard of hearing and thus obtain the disabled person’s railcard and concessionary bus pass. All through the council services which, although difficult to locate the correct department at first, and a little slow to initially start, once got moving, everything was very quick.
My younger brother however, is located in London. Only an hour away from me, but a completely different council. He has exactly the same hearing condition as myself, since it is genetic (albeit with slight differences in our audiograms). His doctor has tried to refer him numerous times to the audiology department at his hospital but there is no response and there is no one for him to contact in order to chase up. He also has met a dead end whenever he has tried to get registered. So there’s me with a T-loop system from my council, SoundRecover hearing aids on the NHS, a green card that allows me not to pay VAT on hearing products and the disabled person railcard and bus pass, and him with endless frustrations.
It is just crazy that we live so close, and these services are supposed to be nationwide, but he experiences difficulty, whereas, at least in this case, I have been successful.
The assessor from Access to Work has confirmed that he has received my NHS letter and is going to have to talk to his manager, so we will see where that goes.