COLUMN by Thornbury and Yate MP Claire Young

Your hearing is a precious thing. Often you don’t realise that until it starts to go. For the past year I have been wearing hearing aids.

My hearing has been deteriorating for a while, so getting them has been a real help. 

They can be a bit of a fiddle, in some cases expensive, and for some potentially dangerous.

This was underlined to me in one conversation I had on the doorstep.

The person’s mother, who has dementia, uses hearing aids.  She told me she doesn’t feel they are safe.  

The hearing aids that are issued by the NHS use batteries.  

These are small and if you have a condition like dementia the fear is you could swallow them, thinking they are pills.  If ingested, the batteries can cause severe damage.

Although battery operated units continue to work for many, a real solution for others would be the option to use rechargeable hearing aids.

Not only would they be safer for vulnerable people, they would be easier to use, reduce waste and be cheaper.  

I discussed this in Westminster at a drop in event organised by Specsavers.  

They provide hearing tests and hearing aids for the Health Service, but when I brought up the idea of rechargeable hearing aids they told me it couldn’t be done on the NHS.

It prompted me to submit a written question to the Health Minister.

The reply was that the NHS can provide rechargeable hearing aids, so I have gone back to Specsavers for clarification on this matter.  

However the only place to get an NHS appointment to pick up devices and free batteries in the constituency is at Specsavers in Thornbury.  

The nearest alternatives are Specsavers in Emersons Green, Bradley Stoke or at the ENT department at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol. 

I will push for NHS hearing services to be more widely available at Specsavers.  

It would be a massive bonus if it were available in the Yate branch.  Hopefully rechargeable hearing aids will be available to NHS customers.  

It would make life safer for vulnerable people, and make life easier - and more environmentally friendly - for everyone who uses them.