The provision of community audiology services is a matter for the health boards/authority in the first instance.
The Eastern Regional Health Authority, ERHA, conducted a pilot project to evaluate the appropriateness of introducing digital and digitally programmable hearing aids into the community audiology service. The project commenced in 2001 and a final report was produced last year. Staff training was provided as part of the pilot project; digital and digitally programmable hearing aids were then issued to a selected number of cases with hearing loss.
The report concluded that in order to introduce digital and digitally programmable hearing aids into the community audiology service a number of factors would need to be considered. All staff presently engaged in hearing aid fitting would need training and updating in order to use the new technology. Appropriate technology would need to be provided to staff in order to carry out the correct programming of hearing aids. In addition, if new technology is introduced the hearing aid fitting appointments would need to be made more prolonged than at present leading to longer waiting times. These issues, along with the question of costs, are currently being examined by the authority.
Finally, the management of waiting lists for community audiology services is the responsibility of the chief executive officers of the health boards/authority. As waiting list data for all health boards is collected by the ERHA, my Department has asked the regional chief executive of the authority to provide the Deputy with the information in relation to waiting lists as requested.