§ 26. Mr. Alexander Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the phasing in of the new National Health Service behind-the-ear hearing aid.
§ 32. Mr. Ernest G. Perryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what progress he is making with the supply of the new NHS hearing aid; and how many people he finally expects to benefit from its supply.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe first of the new aids was issued in November 1974, and the phasing-in programme should be completed in 1979. From September 1975 the initial priority groups were extended to include people in employment and students, with local discretion for individual cases of need. We intend to make the aid available during the next three years to people who are outside the present priority groups.
I am consulting my advisory committee on services for hearing-impaired people about possible methods of determining priority sub-categories within the overall and very large category of elderly hearing-impaired people who have still to be phased in to the programme. The rate of issue of the new aid has steadily increased since it was first introduced, and the number of aids issued in Great Britain up to the end of September 1976, the latest month for which figures are available, was 146,000.
It was originally expected that up to 1 million aids might be issued in the five-year period, but it is not possible to do more than broadly estimate the ultimate number of beneficiaries. The estimate of 1 million was intended to represent the peak number of the new aids on issue at any time and would include many people currently not wearing hearing aids.