St Giles or Kings?

[indiej25]

Ive just moved to the area and the local GP asked which hospital I would like to be refered to for audiology - anyone out there with experiences of either?

[expat]

I have far to much experience of Kings and I like it. No idea of the audiology part at either though, sorry.

[computedshorty]

They both sound alright to me.

[SimonM]

King's no longer do audiology

http://referrals.kch.nhs.uk/directory/critical-care-and-surgery/audiology/

may be useful

[BARA]

As a long standing user of the audiology services at Kings, I have been in touch with the new provider InHealth. They are absolutely useless and cannot tell me where you can get urgent repairs or replacements of hearing aids. You can get batteries and tubing at Chadwick Road Medical Centre on Mondays. Wednesdays and Thursdays by appointment only. Chadwick Road could not tell me if they did repairs and gave me a person to contact, who in turn could not help and referred me back to the original main contact at In Health. They also could not advise me who now provided audiology tests for adults.

[jollybaby]

I have no experience of St Giles' Hospital but may be easier to ask to be referred to Guys and St Thomas' - that's where the Ear, Nose and Throat services for the region are based rather than Kings.

[indiej25]

Ooh thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, slightly worrying that melbourne grove referred me to Kings when they dont seem to provide an audiology service. I will get on the case.

[ianr]

>slightly worrying that melbourne grove referred me to Kings when they dont seem to provide an

>audiology service. I will get on the case.

I've been looking up all the InHealth companies and their public website http://www.inhealthnetcare.com. They describe themselves as the London NHS Diagnostic Service, and display the NHS logo on every page, despite also describing themselves as "an independent sector healthcare provider."

They even include the Melbourne Grove Medical Practice - itself run by Concordia Health Ltd (previously The Medical Shop Ltd) - as one of "our London Sites." http://www.londonnhsdiagnosticservice.com/GP_and_Practice_Managers/London_Sites.asp , so the two enterprises clearly know of each other.

]

[BARA]

Yes melbourne Grove was mentioned to me by In health, but when I contacted them again a couple of weeks (if that) later found they were not on the list, and that it had been changed to Chadwick Road.

[BARA]

Just rang the main number given to me by Mohammed Al Khateeb@inhealthgroup.com and they referred me back to Chadwick Road for replairs and replacements. I informed them that Chadwick Road had said they did not do repairs/replacements, and to get in contact with Mohmamed, who said get in touch with main number listed on Kings site. In Health operator went away and came back with ' we can get you an appointment for a repair at Chadwick Road for Thursday at 10 30 am'.

As it happens I do not need to have a hearing aid repaired, but as a severely deaf person, I cannot function without a hearing aid. I can lip read to a certain extent, but my main communication is through speech. As a professional person working in Health and Social Care, I use an amplifier on my phone,and the aid and amplifier are my life line InHealth obviously have not thought this system through - a severely deaf person, living on their own. cannot ring to make an appointment. Furthermore a 2 day wait for an appointment is not acceptable. A deaf person fully reliant on an hearing aid to work, care for partners/children/elderly parents needs to have a same day appointment ( I had in Mapother House an arrangement that I just went in there and waited a couple of hour till someone was free)

I realise that there are profoundly deaf people who cannot use a aid at all who function perfectly via lip reading and signing, but those of us who have been brought up to 'hear' find it very difficult to be in a 'silent world'again.