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Hearing Aids: Digital Technology

Volume 458: debated on Wednesday 28 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people have received a digital hearing aid in each health trust area since their introduction in Northern Ireland; and what the average number of people on waiting lists for digital hearing aids was in each health trust area in the same period. (129580)

Information on the number of people receiving digital hearing aids in Northern Ireland was first collected for the quarter ending 31 March 2006, and is presented in Table 1. More recent information is not available at this time.

Table 1: Number of patients fitted with digital hearing aids during quarter ending 31 March 2006, by health trust

Hospitals

Patients fitted during quarter

Royal group of hospitals

325

Belfast city hospital

299

Mater hospital

160

Ulster community and hospital

182

Lagan Valley hospital

96

Downe hospital

54

Causeway/united hospitals

404

Armagh and Dungannon

256

Craigavon area hospital

213

Daisy hill hospital

89

Altnagelvin hospital

265

Sperrin lakeland

232

Northern ireland

2,575

Source:

Community Information Branch return AUDI

Information on the number of people waiting for a digital hearing aid is only available for 31 March 2006. Information is therefore not available on the average number of people waiting for digital hearing aids. Information on the number of people waiting for a hearing assessment/reassessment at 31 March 2006 is presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Number of patients waiting for a hearing assessment/reassessment at 31 March 2006, by health trust1Trust/hospitalPatients waitingRoyal hospital0Causeway/United hospitals64UCHT349Lagan Valley0Belfast city hospital278Mater hospital148Armagh and Dungannon426Craigavon area hospital379Newry and Mourne138Altnagelvin38Sperrin Lakeland302Downe Hospital62Northern Ireland2,184 1 The information in the table is based on where a client is treated and not necessarily where the client lives, i.e. a client from the northern board may be seen in the Royal hospital and their details included in the eastern board.Source:Community Information Branch return AUDI