Which? and the RNID undertook a joint investigation to reveal major problems with shops selling hearing aids to the general public.
Disguised as customers, researchers with a hearing loss visited an array of high street stores including Boots hearingcare, (formerly known as David Ormerods),Specsavers, Hidden Hearing and The Hearing Company across England, Scotland and Wales. And four of the ten visits were rated poor by an expert panel with only two in ten rated as good.
The Hearing Company – one of the UK’s largest retailers – staff member’s failed to spot that the researcher could not hear at all in one ear.
From the results they found that a third of the 28 shops visited failed to ask the right questions to accurately assess researchers hearing. Ruling out treatable problems for example any ear infection or serious tumours on the auditory nerve, many practitioners failed to communicate with the patient to who and when the hearing loss started and over 25 per cent did no ask about dizziness.
Three in ten of the visits also showed poor clinical assessment or testing. Many of the researchers were concerned about the inaccuracy of the advice the hearing aid practitioners were giving about NSH services. One hearing aid store told a researcher that it can take months or even years to get hearing aids on the NHS; however the average wait from a GP referral to treatment is under five weeks.
The Hearing Company performed the worst out of all the other companies. It said, “We are confident the high standards of customer care are being achieved in our branches but we are obviously disappointed with the researchers findings.”
Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which? said, “If you are suffering from hearing loss, don’t be afraid to shop around before you buy and steer clear if you encounter dodgy sale tactics such as badmouthing NHS provision.
“High street stores need to up their game if they are going to continue selling hearing aids – do it properly, or don’t do it at all.”
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