Tympa – improving patient access to care
Recently Jess sought out a hearing health check-up from her local Boots Hearingcare in Meadowhall, Sheffield. Jess’s family has a history of hearing loss with both sets of grandparents needing hearing aids, and her dad having two hearing aids as well. Since her first hearing test at 6 & another at 18, Jess knew she had a borderline hearing loss – even so she kept putting off having another hearing test, until now.
Boots Hearingcare used the Tympa to examine Jess during her hearing health check-up. Jess noticed some similarities with the normal procedure – having her ears checked and talking about any previous issues with her ears. However, she also noticed some major benefits of having a hearing health check-up with a Tympa. Firstly, the process was very convenient as she only had to put on a pair of headphones, and she could begin the hearing check process. Secondly, the process was much easier to understand. She could see the results after the hearing check on the Tympa System, which after a quick chat with her audiologist, was able to fully understand what the results meant.
The audiologist at Boots Hearingcare explained to Jess that the Tympa hearing check had picked up an abnormality. The results showed a hearing loss present in both ears, where Jess would require a hearing aid in at least one, if not two ears. After her appointment Jess spoke to her GP who then referred her to her local Specsavers as part of the NHS “Any Qualified Provider Scheme (AQP)” scheme. She managed to get an appointment with Specsavers that weekend. She had another detailed hearing assessment at Specsavers which confirmed the results. Jess was able to see exactly which sounds she was unable to hear and was fitted with two hearing aids. Through the first week of wearing the hearing aids Jess slowly built up wearing them a few hours a day until finally managing to wear them for a full day at work and at home. Initially things sounded a bit odd but after a bit of adjusting she has noticed a big difference.
"Some sounds are very clear and are a lot louder than before and there are certain sounds that I’m hearing for the very first time! The big one has been the difference between ‘ff’ and ‘-th’, whereas I couldn’t hear the difference between ‘free’ and ‘three’ before, now I can!"
Jess, Boots Hearingcare Patient
We asked Jess some follow up questions about her experience and why it’s important for people of all ages to think more about their ear and hearing health.
Do you think people pay as much attention to their ears as they do their eyes and teeth?
The short answer is no. I think most people pay more attention to their teeth and eyes because we’ve all been aware of it since a young age. Whereas unfortunately ear and hearing health is generally aimed at the older generation – when it affects everyone! Things are starting to change as there are now more high street places: – Boots, Hidden Hearing, Premier Hearing and many more, that are delivering expert ear and hearing healthcare with Tympa, helping more people gain access to better hearing care.
Why do you think it’s important for people of all ages to have regular hearing check-ups?
A lot of people go about their daily lives with what they think is normal/ standard hearing. The thing is, it might not be? You don’t know what you can’t hear. My advice is to get booked in and have a test. Even if you feel that everything is fine, it’s better to have it confirmed than just guess that it is. It’s so easy to organise and the hearing check – it takes less than 15 minutes to complete!
