Shock at plans to cut hearing aids

The decision announced by the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to only provide one hearing aid for people who have hearing loss in both ears has caused concern at the National Deaf Children’s Society.

As the leading charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people, the National Deaf Children’s Society is raising concerns today around the lack of consultation and evidence base being used before the CCG made their decision.

Speaking on behalf of the National Deaf Children’s Society, Sarah Collinson, Regional Director South West says: “We are extremely concerned that this decision has been made and we are calling for it to be reversed immediately. Deaf young people have not been consulted and an evidence base has not been made publicly available.

“Plans to cut hearing aids will impact heavily upon young adults at a critical time in their life. The emphasis should be placed on maximising hearing, so that deaf young adults are able to fully access further education and early working life.”

Mark Worsfold said: "As a profoundly deaf person working in science I am extremely disappointed by this ruling. I have been deaf since birth and I rely entirely on lip-reading for communication.

"A great deal of lip-reading is guesswork and hearing aids make the difference between highly educated guesswork and incomprehension. Halving the number of hearing aids doesn't mean that your lip-reading ability is halved; it can actually cripple it entirely.

“The fact that no-one in the medical profession or among deaf education specialists or deaf people, were even aware of this ruling until this morning is an indication of how poorly considered it was. This ruling should definitely be overturned.”