Government Asked To Inquire Into Cost Of Hearing Aids

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29177, 11 April 1960, Page 12

Government Asked To Inquire Into Cost Of Hearing Aids

NEW PLYMOUTH, April 10. : Persons Who were hard pf hearing were being imposed upon by a certain section of the retail-’ ing community, Mr A. E. Hole (Auckland) alleged at the annual conference of the New Zealand League for the Hard of Hearing in New Plymouth on Saturday. “We are constantly approached by people who get into the clutches of upscrupulous people when they buy hearing aids,’’ he said. Mr Hole was explaining an Auckland remit: “That the Government investigate the cost of manufacturing hearing aids, with a view to the Health Department making suitable aids.” Only the first part of the remit was passed, delegates considering the department should not be asked to manufacture aids. Mr Hole claimed some protection needed to be given to the hard of hearing in the purchase of aids. He cited an instance which had occurred over the last two or three weeks in which an 80-year-old woman had committed herself to purchase an £BO aid. She surrendered her old aid, paid a deposit of £2O, and then found that the new aid was unsuitable. When she complained to the dealer, he demanded that she pay for the aid. The woman was given an aid with a number and description that did not conform to that on the guarantee, and her old

rearing aid was “lost" by the dealer. Mr J. Cole (Auckland) produced a transistorised Japanese hearing aid which, he said, cost only £4 17s 6d in Japan. He asked if the league could arrange for them to be imported. Mr A. W. Taylor (Dunedin) said he thought the cost of aids would rise if the Health Department took over their manufacture. The difficulty was to get people to go to a hearing aid clinic, where they could be fitted with aids at very little cost or free of charge. “We should try to stop these super-salesmen from getting older people and selling them expensive unsuitable aids,” ,he said. The league president. Dr. J. A. Paterson (Auckland) said he was “not keen” on asking the Government to undertake work now done by private enterprise. “I am in sympathy with those hard of hearing people who are victimised, but it is, after all, their own fault in most cases.” Dr Paterson said it was necessary to report to a clinic to obtain the subsidy available on aids. He did not think importing aids' from Japan was a suitable solu-tion-local Industry had to be protected. An aid had been produced at a very reasonable figure, and these aids suited most cases.