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Care Opinion

Loss of hearing aid

Posted By Olivercat

"Loss of hearing aid"

About: Northern General Hospital / Older people's healthcare

(as a relative),

My father is in his 90s, and was admitted to Northern General Hospital Elderly Patient ward recently.

The nurses on the ward were great, but despite me saying to every member of staff I met to look after his false teeth and hearing aid (as his false teeth had been lost during a previous admission), after 2 days his hearing aid was lost, and could not be found.

 The charge nurse told me that this is a massive problem and happens all the time. If this is the case, why is no-one addressing this problem? It is extremely isolating for anyone using a hearing aid to be without it, and is surely part of their health care.

It also necessitates replacement, at some cost to the NHS, taking up valuable appointments and causing further difficulty to my father who then has to travel to appointments.

What is so difficult about putting a hearing aid into a container for safe keeping, and whatever happened to treating the whole patient?

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Responses

Response from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 3 months ago
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 08/01/2024 at 15:10
Published on Care Opinion at 15:10

Thank you for taking the time to share feedback about your father's recent experience of care at our hospitals.

We are really sorry to read that your father's hearing aid was lost while he was admitted on the ward and appreciate the isolation and communication difficulties this causes, and recognise the additional wasted resources associated with replacing these lost items.

As noted, this is an issue which can be quite challenging to resolve due to a number of factors but it is a matter we are aware of. We will raise this issue at our Patient Experience and Engagement Group for discussion around potential opportunities to make improvements to reduce instances of lost property across the organisation.

However, if you wish to follow this up, please contact our PALS team on 0114 271 2400 or by emailing sth.pals@nhs.net. The PALS team will ask you to share some personal details in order for us to investigate this matter for you.

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