Posted on 07/30/2007 2:43:04 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Woman, 108, must wait 18 months for hearing aid
Thair Shaikh
Monday July 30, 2007
The Guardian
A 108-year-old woman has been told she must wait at least 18 months before she receives a new hearing aid. Olive Beal, who has failing eyesight and uses a wheelchair, finds it difficult to hear with her five-year-old analogue aid and needs a digital version that cuts out background noise and makes conversation easier.
Mrs Beal, a former piano teacher who was involved in the suffragette movement, would be 110 by the time she gets her new hearing aid. "I could be dead by then," she said yesterday.
Her family said they had been shocked to be told there was an 18-month waiting list by the Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust. A digital hearing aid costs about £1,000 on the open market.
Maria Scott, 52, her granddaughter, said: "After having a hearing test on Wednesday they said, 'yes, she does need a digital hearing aid, but there is an 18-month waiting list'.
"I would have thought they would take her age into account as she probably has not got 18 months to wait.
"Olive has worked hard from the age of 16 to her late 60s and paid taxes. She has been healthy all her life and lived with her daughter until 15 years ago - she has never sponged off the state. I thought a 108-year-old deserved to be treated better than this."
Born in 1899, Mrs Beal grew up in Paddington, West London, and went to school with Christabel Pankhurst, daughter of suffragette leader Emily, and helped at suffragette demonstrations.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
"A spokesman for the Royal National Institute for the Deaf said: 'I am afraid this is a common problem. In some parts of the country there are over two year waiting lists, which is shocking.'"
What is shocking is that we have hardcore socialists like Hillary Clinton and Michael Moore who insist on punishing America with a helathcare system like the one this 108 year-old woman belongs to.
But it’s free!
Free!
Frreeee!
I’m sure she has a few grandchildren in their 50’s. Can’t they pool their money to get a hearing aid for her? Why wait for the system and whine, “but she paid taxes”?
Get the old bat an ear trumpet.
Sorry, Olive. I think that's the point.
APf
“I could be dead by then”. That’s what they’re counting on comrade.
Just conjecture on my part.
Mine was in my ear within two weeks of the mold being made. Compare and contrast.
Perhaps they’re doing that, but if they’re ordinary middle/working class Brits, they’re being taxed to death themselves to pay for this so-called “health care” system. They definitely have a right to complain about having to pay for this out of pocket while they wrangle with the bureaucracy over how stupid it is to tell a 108-year-old that she has to wait 18 months for a hearing aid.
Its what the Clintons have in mind.
Yes it is free! Just like my free dental care in Cuba. Viva la revolucion!
This sort of crap is the REAL reason the British government is so determined to outlaw citizen gun ownership.
Bravo, for keeping health care cost down. The old broad is likely to be dead before she qualifies for a new hearing aid, thus saving the tax payers money. Liberalism is so compassionate.
I need a digital hearing aid, but how much could my kids sell a used hearing aid for when I die? If the audiologists didn’t have a monopoly on them the price would drop like the prices on hand held calculators dropped.
Forget hearing aids; use email.
Maybe we should flood all the “universal health care advocates” with the stories about these cases, and make them answer why this is good, and if they would be willing to go through the same as everyone else would have to.
My 103 year old neighbor gave me a set of big plastic ears like a deer has and they help when the speaker is in front of me.
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