What it
was like

The stories

Derek, 74

Two years in the drawer, then the birds came back

NHS aid check, then a pair at Standard level

Time

3 weeks from check to keeping the pair

Cost, all in

£45 check (refunded against the pair) + £2,295 Standard pair + £195 Complete care, paid at £93 a month over 24 months

What they wanted

Derek's NHS aids had been in the kitchen drawer for two years. They whistled, they felt loud, and he could never get an appointment to have them looked at. His daughter booked the £45 NHS check without telling him what it was.

What we did

Alan looked in his ears (wax, removed by Helen the same morning), cleaned and retubed the NHS aids, and tested his hearing. The NHS aids were set about right for two years ago; his hearing had moved on. Derek listened to a Standard pair in the room with his daughter's voice, then took the two-week trial home. He rang on day four to say the blackbird was back in the garden.

How it went

He kept the Standard pair on Complete care, paid over 24 months, and kept the NHS aids as a spare. His two-week follow-up was the first time his daughter had seen him laugh at a joke he had not asked to have repeated.

Anita, 58

The hiss that ran her nights, made small

Tinnitus consultation and sound therapy

Time

3 months

Cost, all in

£120 consultation + £45 sound generator + £60 follow-up

What they wanted

A hiss that started after a bad cold and never left. Anita was sleeping four hours, had stopped going to the cinema, and had been told by two people to learn to live with it without anyone saying how.

What we did

Priya spent 75 minutes on it. The hearing test showed a mild high-pitch loss Anita had not noticed; the tinnitus sat exactly at the pitch of the loss. Priya explained why the brain turns up a sound it is missing, set up a bedside sound generator and a phone app, wrote a plan for the nights, and booked the support group. At three months Anita scored 22 points lower on the questionnaire.

How it went

Not cured, and Priya never said it would be. Sleeping seven hours, back at the cinema, and running the tea urn at the support group. She is thinking about a small pair of aids with a tinnitus programme; there is no hurry.

Bill, 88

The whole thing done at his own kitchen table

Home hearing test, wax removal and a pair fitted at home

Time

2 weeks, three visits

Cost, all in

£95 home test + £125 home wax removal + £1,695 rechargeable Essential pair + £395 Premium care

What they wanted

Bill lives alone eight miles out and had stopped answering the phone because he could not hear who it was. His neighbour rang Sandra. He did not want to go anywhere, and he did not want a fuss.

What we did

Tom went on a Tuesday and tested him at the kitchen table: a moderate loss in both ears and both canals full of wax. Helen came on the Thursday and cleared them. Tom came back the following Tuesday with a rechargeable Essential pair, fitted with real-ear measurement in the same chair, and set the charger by the kettle where he would see it. The neighbour learned to change the filters.

How it went

Bill answers the phone now. Premium care means every follow-up and the yearly review happen at the table, and Tom rings him in between. He has not been to Market Place and does not intend to.