Two months ago, I wrote about what I learned from a 15 minute visit to my local NHS audiology clinic.
Just before Christmas, I had my second visit. I must admit I didn’t have high expectations, but I didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did.
Again, the audiologist (my heart sank a tad when I realised it was the same one as last time) didn’t tell me his name when I was called from the waiting room. Nor did I ask.
When I arrived, I was directed to sit in a chair that had been placed in the middle of the room, with its back to where he would be sitting. This didn’t bode well.
Sure enough, a moment later, having taken my hearing aids off, and had a pair of headphones placed on my head, my audiologist carried on talking to me.
While standing behind my chair.
As I turned to try and work out what he might be saying, I had to wonder how much deaf awareness training he’d had.
Reading his facial expression, I nodded, and that seemed acceptable. He sat down, and soon, I was hearing the familiar beeps of loud and then ever quieter high and low sounds designed to discover how much hearing I have.
When that ended, I reached for my hearing aids and asked him whether he would mind if I put it back on.
He was still behind me at this point, over my left shoulder, and as he shook his head I thought he was indicating that he wouldn’t mind, and started putting my hearing aids back on.
He suddenly looked annoyed and I realised I’d read him wrong, and duly took them off again, before having another test using a different set of headphones.
A few minutes later, the hearing test was over and he began asking me a series of questions which were on his computer, designed to find out how much I hear in different situations.
Each time I answered one of his questions about how much I can hear, he turned back to his computer to put my answer in, and while he did, I replied to some text messages.
I realise that’s not very polite, but in my defence, I didn’t think he’d been all that polite, either.
He didn’t like that, and soon said “please can you not do that while I’m asking the questions.”
That was a cue, as far as I was concerned.
“Well, if we’re going to talk about communication,” I said, “what I don’t understand is that when I came into this room, the chair was placed so that I had my back to you. Then when you spoke to me, when I wasn’t wearing my hearing aids, you were standing behind me, which made it very difficult to lipread you.”
He replied saying that I had to have my back to him during the hearing test, so that I didn’t see him pressing the buttons.
I replied “I can understand that, but that wasn’t during the test. That was before the test, and halfway through, when I asked you if I could put my hearing aids back on. That’s why I misunderstood you.”
He then replied with something I found unbelievable.
“I was finding out how much you could hear,” he said.
When I asked him what that meant, he said that speaking to me with and without my hearing aids enabled him to get an idea of how much he should expect me to be able to hear before I took the test.
I couldn’t really believe that. He needs advance warning of how much I can hear, before he tests me? He speaks to deaf people when they can’t see him, to test how deaf they are?
“Is that part of the test?” I asked him.
“No.” He replied.
“Well, when you asked me to stop looking at my phone, you were asking me to help you communicate with me. But that should work both ways,” I said.
“If you talk to me behind my back, then I don’t feel at ease. You should have been standing in front of me when you were speaking to me so that I can lip read you. If you don’t do that, then a deaf person won’t feel comfortable. A deaf person will think that you don’t really understand what it’s like to be deaf.”
At that point, he looked at me for several seconds and didn’t say anything.
I was sort of hoping he might say I had a point, but instead he just turned to his computer and carried on asking me questions.
I left it there, because I didn’t think saying any more would get me anywhere, and hoping that maybe some of what I’d said might sink in.
What was funny was that he phoned me half an hour afterwards, offering to send me the audiogram I’d requested (which he’d said he couldn’t print out). He sounded a lot friendlier on the phone than he had earlier.
As I said in my earlier article, what worried me about all this is not so much how having this kind of experience affects me, but others – children, or older deaf people – who come into contact with audiology staff who aren’t very deaf-aware, empathetic, or even, as I found in this case, able to acknowledge a deaf person’s point of view.
At my next appointment, I’m due to get a new pair of hearing aids. I’ll let you know how that goes…
Charlie Swinbourne is the editor of Limping Chicken, as well as being a journalist and award-winning scriptwriter. He writes for the Guardian and BBC Online, and as a scriptwriter, penned the films My Song, Coming Out and Four Deaf Yorkshiremen.
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Ian Noon
January 7, 2014
It’s so depressing to read this, especially as I know there are some brilliant audiologists out there who do recognise the issues and care about properly involving deaf people. I’m lucky in that my own audiology department are fantastic, always checking I understand, bending over backwards to make sure I have everything I need and so on and I don’t understand why others can’t be as good.
Did you consider making a complaint or contacting the local Healthwatch?
Robert Mandara
January 7, 2014
The audiologist should be struck off! Can’t you make an official complaint and/or insist on seeing a different audiologist?
Linda Richards
January 7, 2014
Dunno how you kept your cool….. Lmr xx
Editor
January 7, 2014
It’s actually quite hard, I found, to tell someone to their face where they’re going wrong, when there’s just two of you in a room… had to keep voice quiet/not loud in case I seemed aggressive in any way… would have preferred to have other people present, to be honest!
Jenny
January 7, 2014
Sadly, I’m not surprised at his ignorance and lack of professionalism. Do you think his ringing you afterwards was also a test to see how you handled the phone? My mother’s deaf and people ring her even after she’s asked them not to as they don’t understand that she really, really can’t hear.
Editor
January 7, 2014
I don’t think it was a test – I think he might have been worried by how the appointment had gone and whether I might make a complaint. Can’t know for sure, obviously. Charlie
Dee Davies
March 2, 2014
I agree.
pennybsl
January 7, 2014
Sorry, it is really sickening and unacceptably NAIVE of the audiologist to behave in this way. When and where did he train? One would expect audiological training to include good ‘beside manners’ communication skills.
When I worked in the City Lit during the 1990s, there was an excellent Speech & Language Therapy team offering training. I gave a one-session Deaf Awareness (with a Deaf cultural perspective) to the department’s Lipreading teacher trainees and Hearing Therapist trainees. They included a small number who had hearing loss themselves. It was an eye-opener for me, as a born Deaf person, to see my assumptions smashed by their feedback, how much they valued the Deaf (cultural & good practice) awareness training as integral to their overall training.
It is rare to see audiological training being led by Deaf professionals themselves.
Most training to do with hearing loss tends to be drily medical, clinical and physical.
Also, trained people get top-ups of expertise and skills during their careers but very rarely have ‘people training’, i.e. to be aware of how we d/Deafies cope with our assistive hearing equipment in the maelstrom of everyday life.
Charlie, we await with bated breath your next episode!
Dee Davies
March 2, 2014
I agree. I trained at the City Lit. The training was second to none
M.
January 7, 2014
I haven’t been to an audiologist in several years. Not worth my time.
clive boswell
January 7, 2014
Perhaps you ought to print this article with the comments and send it to that audiologist!
Frustrated
January 7, 2014
Are you going to make a complaint? Too many people refrain from making complaints to the NHS….yet we see the same stories all over again….
Editor
January 7, 2014
Weighing that up at the moment – C
Maria
January 7, 2014
Thank you Charlie for sharing your experience with us. Most of us have probably experienced something similar, although the above incident is especially nasty IMHO.
I know I have seen it highlighted here before also, but on a related point, I was in hospital lately (my first ever visit, so scary enough) and I was blown away by the callous, ignorant and sometimes cruel attitude of some of the staff towards me as a deaf person. I might be off the mark, but I really do feel that, in spite of their qualifications, health professionals should not have to be taught compassion, kindness or empathy. No piece of paper in the world will state these qualities, yet they can go a long way towards easing the fear and loneliness of a scared, isolated deaf person like me.
Best of luck in future Charlie! I hope your future appointments are an improvement on the last…mind you, that won’t be too hard 😉
Jane Shaw
January 7, 2014
I am sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience of audiology. Most adult rehabilitation audiology is now outsourced by the NHS to any qualified provider (AQP). Patients now have a choice of service provider and should make it clear to their GP, at referral, that they wish to exercise that choice. I would urge you to make a complaint both to the provider and to your local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group who will want to be aware that one of their chosen service providers is falling short of expectations. There are exemplary audiology services available where all members of staff have comprehensive Deaf awareness training and experience.
Jane Shaw (CEO – Action for Deafness)
Diane
January 7, 2014
Reminds me of an appointment I had at ENT after ear surgery. Fortunately my husband was with me and when I couldn’t hear what the consultant was saying he answered for me. The consultant then asked me “Where are your hearing aids?”, I replied “One’s in my ear and the other’s in my bag”. “Why aren’t you wearing both?” he said, “Well I would have,” I said “If you hadn’t packed my ear with gauze!”.
Steve
January 7, 2014
What a dreadful experience. As you say, it’s worrying to think about the impact on deaf children/older people etc who are less empowered. You could feedback through the PALS office with constructive criticism to help the professional & their colleagues learn lessons for the future. Fingers crossed your next encounter won’t be as awful.
Zoey
January 7, 2014
Had similar experience with one of the audiology at hospital AET clinic, She was awful and no knowledge of Deaf Awareness, My mum was also there and she see it my experience was appalling, We straightaway complaint to the PALS but wasn’t solved the problem quick enough. Never went back again. Good luck to your next appt.
Janet Perkins
January 7, 2014
Charlie, please don’t hesitate to complain and also to vote with your feet and find another provider. If we stop putting up with mediocre service – especially in the NHS – the standards will rise. Health professionals are no longer on pedestals, thank goodness. Those who think they should be need to be knocked off!
Nathan
January 7, 2014
The vast majority of NHS audiology services are for hard of hearing people (especially, elderly people) They can hear without lipreading when wearing hearing aids and the audiologist probably wanted some kind of idea how good your speech discrimination skill are.
pennybsl
January 7, 2014
Understood what you have said, Nathan, but in real life it is a total fallacy.
Many older people who became deafened in later life or have deteriorating hearing loss do miss out a lot of speech coming their way.
This is very common in sound-filled environments like out in the high street, in a room full of people, background music, etc.., when the backing noise levels actually drown the spoken sounds.
The reason those people appear to cope well is their acquisition of spoken language, knowing what someone is saying through guesswork and experience.
If they are ‘tested’ in a controlled environment with unfamiliar spoken dialogue with background noise using hearing aids, one would definitely see significant gaps in receiving the words clearly.
Dee Davies
March 2, 2014
I totally disagree with your comment Nathan
Rachel
January 7, 2014
What an awful experience, even if it was some kind if test, he should have informed you of the case…we all have sometimes acknowledged people without really understanding or assumed we have. So if he advised in advance, face to face, he would of got a better results for the ‘test’. I hope you have a better experience next time. Make sure you complain if not. Its hard enough to explain to strangers we meet generally when we need them to be facing us or to be clearer, you shouldn’t need to explain to a professional in audiology. Good luck with the new hearing aids.
sammmymack
January 7, 2014
I think this lack of awareness and empathy is a problem shared by medical staff in general. The higher up they are , the worse.
For example I went to a new dentist recently for a filling and was asked to remove my glasses to put on the protective glasses even though the protective glasses always fit over the top. I have severely impaired vision without them but it’s amazing what you do when told to by a medical professional. She put them over on a table somewhere ( I couldn’t see where ). At the end she told me I could go ( I think because I couldn’t see her to be sure what she was saying).
I asked for my glasses back and she said ‘they are over there , you can get them on the way out’ ( I think that’s what she said as I couldn’t see her clearly or where she was pointing to.)
I stayed put but she busied herself with the assistant. I got up and found a table, swept my hand across it for the glasses luckily not pushing them onto the floor, put them on and made a quick exit , feeling vulnerable and foolish.
PS The actual filling was a breeze!
Natalya (@barakta)
January 8, 2014
I wish I could say I was shocked. This reads like the punch line to what do you get if you cross an audiologist with ATOS… I have a rule. No one “tests” my hearing without my consent cos that is disrespectful and rude.
I had an audiologist who I had given a broken hearing aid to for repair. She turned away from me to the work surface to do the usual “does it make a noise” faux-testing which I was fine with. What My friend told me after we left that the audiologist had been chattering away to me while facing away from me… The friend who had accompanied me was sharp enough to make a sarcastic remark about the lack of deaf awareness. Audiologist’s reply was “oh, oops, yes, I always do that”… This was a woman who had been my audiologist for ten years at that point and totally knows I don’t even know speech is happening without an aid in.
Respect to you for being able to challenge that fail at the time. I can well imagine it felt hard to moderate your volume and tone, something deafies find hard and hearies will misconstrue – doubly so as you are male.
I think a constructively worded written complaint outlining what happened and the reasons it was offensive, disrespectful and rude would be useful if you can face it. It’s about respect and I don’t care if 90 or 95% of their clientele can still hear, it’s presumptive, unhelpful and rude. It’s about consent. It’s about awareness. I think hospitals should know if staff are rude and cross a line beyond a genuine mistake or something writeoffable as a ‘bad day’.
We shouldn’t accept this sort of service from audiologists. We don’t deserve it. Elderly people don’t deserve it (I recently attended a great workshop with a number of older women who told some horrible stories of how they were ignored, invisibilised and patronised by younger people). No one deserves it.
My current audiologists are excellent, the best I have ever had as they manage to be technically good and have really strong deaf awareness and manners. It is clear from talking to them that some of their colleagues are deaf/HH and they have more awareness of the every day reality of deafness and using hearing aids. The first time I’ve not been sneered at by a professional who works with deaf folk for taking my hearing aids out when I’m tired/alone/home etc. I can appreciate the hearing I have AND want a rest from the noise. I don’t think I’d want to settle for less than respectful intelligent professionalism from now on.
Jacqui Ball
January 8, 2014
It is quite upsetting to think that an audiologist such as yours, either lacks deaf awareness or has completely lost interest in his profession by being condescending. You did however, have the courage to challenge him by being assertive and telling him what your thoughts were and hopefully he will take that on board.
I remember I challenged a hearing audiologist for not looking at me while he was writing and talking to my case notes. After I said that I felt he did not acknowledge my presence and that he never gave me eye to eye contact, he looked at me and said ; funny you mention that, my daughter has told me the same thing, and she can hear’. He did not apologies, but from that day onward, he treated me like a celebrity, and has never disrespected me since. Being appropriately assertive can be the key to changing how someone’s behavior affect others.
Lana
January 8, 2014
Lots of comments about your audiologist’s attitude – what would he say when he reads all this? – invite him to your L C website?
John David Walker
January 8, 2014
Does anyone remember that awful audiologist at Grey’s Inn Road (Kings Cross) who always wears sleeve garters? I went in one day and asked what were the latest developments in hearing aid technology. He responded, “you have the best hearing aids on the market, what more do you want?” He shut me up good, and I never went back again. In this day and age of Healthwatch, I would have complained but it wasn’t the thing to do back then (I am talking about 20 years ago). A little decorum wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Sarah Skuse
January 8, 2014
I have to add to the list of bad experiences with audiology. After the first fitting of my BAHA , bone anchored hearing aid, the audiologist adjusted the settings so the sound of my own voice became as natural as possible. She then asked “What about hearing other sounds?” This is a perfectly reasonable question, except that we were sitting in the soundproofed audiology booth!!!! Stupid
Reg Cobb
January 9, 2014
Ditto here. Had a similar experience. Just diabolical! (The sign for this is ‘die b*ll*ck’) Just the sign for it!
Shaari
January 11, 2014
Why oh why do you have to go back to this ‘audiologist’ I’m not deaf at all, but his whole demeanor, attitude, mean spirited body language must be reported to whatever medical bureau is in charge of his clinic.