The NHS issued a safety alert last year that required battery locks in hearing aids used by pre-school children. Colleagues will recall the issues this raised around the fitting of radio aids where this involved removing the battery lock. NDCS issued a blog about this to their members earlier this year.

The safety alert came with a September 2020 deadline.

NDCS and the Assistive Listening Technology Working Group know that many services had already been working hard to change their procedures and policies in response to this safety alert so that pre-school deaf children could still be fitted with radio aids.

They would be very interested to hear from services on whether this September deadline presents any difficulties that weren’t anticipated at the start of the year. They are conscious that the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the work of services. As such, they are keen to understand whether this has had an impact on any work that was being done to ensure compliance with the safety alert and continued/new provision of radio aids to pre-school deaf children.

Any feedback you provide will help us to judge whether this is an issue that we need to raise with the Department of Health and Social Care.

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