§ 53. Mr. Ieuan Wyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress officials in his Department have made in drawing up a programme of action to improve the hearing aid service.
§ Mr. FreemanI refer the hon. Member to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson), on 27 July at columns 918–19. We have set up a working group consisting of officials from this Department and Mersey regional health authority, a consultant otolaryngologist, a community physician, an audiological scientists, an audiological technician, a representative of the private sector hearing aid industry and a representative of RNID, together with an observer from the Department of Trade and Industry, to work up a programme of action, including proposals for direct referral pilot schemes, some of which we expect to start early in the next financial year. The first meeting of the working group has been arranged for 20 November.