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Audiology Services: The Patients’ Perspective

Audiology Services: The Patients’ Perspective. Shabnum Mustapha Communications and Campaigns Manager RNID Scotland 9 th February 2009. Patients’ Perspective. RNID consultation event on Patients’ Right Bill, January 2009

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Audiology Services: The Patients’ Perspective

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  1. Audiology Services: The Patients’ Perspective Shabnum Mustapha Communications and Campaigns Manager RNID Scotland 9th February 2009

  2. Patients’ Perspective • RNID consultation event on Patients’ Right Bill, January 2009 • ‘It’s a lottery as the health services are good in certain places but bad in others’ • ‘When I want to make an appointment with audiology, I have to rely on a friend phoning for me’

  3. Patients’ Perspective • On waiting times: • ‘It depends how serious your situation is: I was told ‘we only see emergency patients’ but then to be classified as an emergency, you have to see a consultant first. It’s a vicious circle. I asked my GP to be referred to another consultant and he advised me to go private. So then I got another GP who got me another appointment with a different NHS Board and that cut the waiting time’

  4. Patients’ Perspective • ‘The problem is that you have to try a hearing aid on a trial basis and then it can take a long time to tune it, test it in different environments such as the pub, outside, in the car, etc. It takes a lot of time and some NHS services cannot provide the support.’ • ‘The NHS only provides one type of hearing aid. We need to see a range of products otherwise it’s a bit like going to a shoe shop and all the shoes available are in size 6.’

  5. Patients’ Perspective • ‘At the hearing clinic, one of the nurses shouts patients’ names and wonders why nobody replies.’ • ‘The audiologist takes off your hearing aid and then he goes on talking, expecting you to understand’

  6. Patients’ Perspective • ‘I had been using the private sector for 12 years but then last year I went back to the NHS. I recently needed a new hearing aid and from start to finish it took only two months’ • ‘[the NHS] is a high quality service – the best health service in the world.’ • Mixed views about using the private sector.

  7. Patient-Centred Approach • Assumption - the reduced wait is here to stay and be improved upon • Broad interest groups around the table • User/patient involvement • Practicing audiologists • Service commissioners • Primary care • Other stakeholders e.g. deaf organisations to advise on post-diagnostic support • Real opportunities for progress

  8. Five Priorities • Reduce waiting times • Quality assurance and enhancement • Move routine hearing aid provision out of the acute hospital • Implement hearing screening for adults • Provide ongoing support

  9. Reduce waiting times • 2006 audit - 26 week target • Average wait was 33 weeks • Ranged from 12 weeks to 92 weeks • 18 week target by 2011 • Waiting times available from April 2009 • 18 Weeks: Referral to Treatment Standards. Principles and Definitions • Patients’ Rights Bill – waiting time guarantee

  10. Quality assurance and enhancement • Quality standards in audiology – • Scotland-wide • Peer review and sharing best practice • Properly monitored and used as a • tool to help audiologists improve • Patients integral to the process • Practical change – waiting room experience

  11. Move routine hearing aid provision out of the acute hospital • Design services with patients in mind • Promote self-referral • Enable GP’s to be more engaged • Local accessibility with good integration with specialists (ensure commissioning pathways reflect this) • Practical change – repairs, maintenance and battery supply

  12. Implement hearing screening for adults • Plan and deliver hearing screening for over 55’s • Integrate with primary care screening • Look at different methods for • encouraging people to come forward • to check their hearing and do something • about the result • RNID Hearing Matters campaign • Practical change – a reduction in the 10-15 years it takes for someone to take action once their hearing begins to go

  13. Provide ongoing support delivered in more creative ways • Research digital hearing aid usage • Tie-in with quality enhancement • Refocus service towards rehabilitation • Ensure sign posting is available for people • Review the information provided to people and work together to be more creative about its delivery and answer what people want to know and when they need to know it • Practical change – integrate volunteer support schemes into routine provision

  14. ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced’ – James Baldwin

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