HL Deb 10 May 1949 vol 162 cc494-6WA
THE DUKE OF MONTROSE

asked His Majesty's Government what action is contemplated to meet the difficulties in the supply and service of the Government and other aural aids, and to call for a report on the progress made in setting up otological clinics.

LORD SHEPHERD

Deliveries of the Mark I Medresco aid are now completed, and a new and improved model, the Mark II, is just coming into production. An order for 100,000 of these has been placed with the General Post Office and delivery from the contractor is about to begin, at an anticipated rate of 9,000 per month, approximately twice the rate of production of the Mark I. Up to the present, about 7,000 Mark I aids have either been found to be unsatisfactory or require repair because of damage after issue. These will be repaired and have certain of their components replaced by improved parts, as incorporated in the Mark II, and will then be supplied to patients. The reconstruction of these aids and further repairs as they become necessary will begin during the next month.

Meanwhile, research is proceeding on a further improved aid, the Mark III, which will be brought into production as soon as possible, and on a bone-conduction receiver for the very small minority of patients not suited by the present air-conduction instrument. The supply and servicing of hearing aids other than the Medresco is a matter for the industry and not one with which the Government is immediately concerned.

There are at present in operation 120 clinics in England and Wales at which defects of hearing can be diagnosed and patients tested for a Medresco aid. The aids are being distributed from 25 centres, the trained staff at nearly all of which is being or is about to be, doubled in order to handle the increased supply of aids. Within about two months my right honourable friend the Minister of Health hopes to be able to arrange for an additional ten distribution centres to be opened, to which part of the waiting lists at the existing centres will, where convenient, be transferred. When some of the waiting lists have been cleared, it will be possible for the trained staff of the distribution centres to travel around the diagnostic clinics they serve, and carry out distribution of aids to patients from there.

Since the inception of the National Health Service, nearly 20,000 patients have been supplied with Medresco aids.

House adjourned at twenty-seven minutes before seven o'clock.