59 weeks
PN
Many thanks for the heads up on both Specsavers and the VA. I was unaware that I could make a claim for hearing damage, as I had been advised by a solicitor that, as most of my time in the RAF was covered by Crown Indemnity, I wouldn't be able to claim. Having visited the VA site I will now be putting a claim in.
I have several hearing problems the most debilitating being severe tinnitus. As audiology is not contracted out by my local health trust I have been referred by my GP for an audiology consult. I am now 24 weeks into a [B]59 Week Waiting List.[B] We have no NHS as such in Northern Ireland, rather a combined Health & Social care agency, but, of course, there is no executive in place and the HSA will probably be running out of money soon.
After 22 years of working on airfields both as an SAC out laying Glims and LE58s and other such jobs with no ear defenders, or working as a Runway Controller, originally in the old Commer 'vans with absolutely no soundproofing or the newer but almost equally noisy caravans I would think that I am eligible for, at least a grant to cover the cost of a decent hearing aid. Either that or its back to my wifes home village of Dunscroft and pop down to SS in Donny and get the taxpayers of the Soviet Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire (A Nuclear Free Zone, IIRC) to pay for it.